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PRACTICAL MEWS ON 
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 



PRACTICAL VIEWS ON 
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 



BY 

GEORGE E. WRIGHT 



NEW YORK 
HARCOURT, BRACE & HOWE 

1920 






31 



M 3 -) 57' 



■• i.' 



FRINTKD IN ENGLAND BY 
BXBM JOHNSON AND CO., LTD., YORK AND LONDON 



INTRODUCTION 

The output of books dealing with so called super- 
normal phenomena has already become so considerable 
that an apology is plainly needed for any addition thereto. 

Interest in the subject is undoubtedly widespread, 
especially (and most naturally) in that department thereof 
dealing with communication from the disembodied. 

Anyone, however, who has had occasion frequently 
to discuss the subject, in one or more of its numerous 
branches, cannot but have noticed that, even among 
people of considerable general culture, there is undoubtedly 
much confusion of thought. 

So many men and women, who in regard to matters 
of normal experience exhibit balanced judgment and 
adequate critical faculties, appear, when they pass to a 
consideration of super-normal phenomena, to divest 
themselves of that essential equipment. They either 
uncritically accept, as evidence, experiences which are 
of a purely emotional, and non-evidential, nature ; or 
they dismiss, as the outcome of fraud or malobservation, 
the published results of many years of patient investigation 
by observers of unimpeachable integrity and weighty 
authority. 

The present need is not for matter but for method. 
The present situation of the enquirer is not dissimiliar 
to that of the biologist before the " systema naturae " of 
Linneaus reduced to order the then " endless chaos of 
different animal and vegetable forms." 

The object of this book is therefore to suggest to the 
reader, who has not yet made any examination of the 
published records in the chief departments of psychical 
research, the broad lines on which this examination 



vi INTRODUCTION 









should be carried out, to summarize briefly the evidence, 
and to put forward the conclusions to which a practical 
man has been led by that evidence. Considerations of 
space have prevented any adequate quotation of the 
evidence on which these conclusions are based. Full 
reference is however given to the original publications 
which are easily accessible. 

Few will deny that the subject is one of prime interest 
to every thinking man or woman. The issues have, 
however, been greatly confused, both by the accretion of 
a vast amount of non-evidential matter from sources 
which carry little or no authority, and also by much 
illogical criticism based not on fact but on dogmatic 
opinion. 

If the result may be, in some measure, to aid the reader 
to steer through this " strange uncharted ocean " a middle 
course ; avoiding, on the one hand, the shoals of illogical 
scepticism, and on the other, the rocks of unreasoning 
credulity, this book will have served its purpose. 



I have to express my thanks to Messrs. Methuen & Co. 
for permission to quote a number of passages from Mr. 
Podmore's Modern Spiritualism, and to Messrs. J. M. 
Watkins & Co. for similar permission in regard to Dr. 
Crawford's work, The Reality of Psychic Phenomena. 
The debt of gratitude which I, in common with all students 
of these subjects, owe to the S.P.R. is obvious. 

GEORGE E. WRIGHT 
Nov., 1919. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 



Pages 



The distinction between a fact, and the evidence for a 
fact — Non-evidential experiences — The laws of evidence 
in psychic research — Contrast with evidence in inorganic 
sciences — Similarity with evidence in organic sciences — Prof. 
Schiller's opinion — The method by which evidence is to be 
obtained — Uninstructed experiment of little value — The 
value of the study of the records of psychic research — The 
reliance to be placed on the records — Integrity of recorders — 
Mal-observation and unconscious deception — The simplicity 
of the observations in two chief departments — Observation and 
reporting in investigations of " physical " phenomena, etc. — 
Qualifications and attitude of S.P.R. investigators — Intolerance 
of some of their opponents — Podmore's opinion — 
Anticedent improbability — The need for fairness 1-12 

CHAPTER II 
TELEPATHY 

Reasons for commencing with this subject — Definition of 
Telepathy — Clairvoyance — Experimental Telepathy and its 
proof — Spontaneous Telepathy and its proof — Recent 
experiments — Constable's theory — Difference in percepts 
due to death of agent — The implications of the Theory ... 13-31 

CHAPTER III 
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 

Poltergeists — Spiritualism and early American phenomena — 
Earlier English phenomena — Squire's levitations — Foster's 
spirit writing — The transit of Guppy — Spirit painting, 
Duguid and Hooper — Slate writing, Eglington's manifesta- 
tions and Davey's experiments — Podmore's remarks — 
Carrington's explanations — Inadequacy of early evidence — 
Home's mediumship — The hallucination theory and Count 
Solovovo's remarks — Stainton Moses — Value of evidence for 
manifestations of Home and Moses — Phenomena produced 
by Mrs. Williams — Experiments with Eusapia Palladino — 
Dr. Crawford and the Belfast Circle — General conclusions... 32-76 



viii CONTENTS 

Pages 
CHAPTER IV 

MATERIALIZATION AND SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 

Varieties of Materialization — Spirit Photography — Psycho- 
graphs — The case of Marthe Beraud — Carelessness in 
Spiritualist evidence for Materializations — Archdeacon 
Colley and Monck — Prof. Henslow and psychographs — 
Want of adequate verification — General conclusions ... 77-87 

CHAPTER V 

COMMUNICATION WITH THE DISEMBODIED— 
THE METHODS 

The agencies — Conscious and unconscious deception — 
Automatic writing — The Ouija board — The Planchette- 
Table tilting — Direct writing — Professional mediumship 
and alleged fraud — Sources of information — Guessing, 
fishing, and muscle reading — General conclusion... ... 88-99 

CHAPTER VI 

COMMUNICATION WITH THE DISEMBODIED— 
THE EVIDENCE 

Unverifiable matter — Desirability of its publication — 
Prof. W. James's remarks — Evidential matter — The S.P.R. 
records — The Nature of the communications — Difficulties — 
Theological preconceptions — " Raymond " and a priori 
views — Evidential communications confined to past experi- 
ence of communicator — Trivialities a proof of identity — 
An analogy — The modus operandi of trance mediumship — 
Terms — Controls, separate personalities, or sub-liminal 
creations — Multiple personality — Beauchamp and Fischer 
cases — Dr. Hyslop's opinion — Mrs. Piper's mediumship — 
Its special evidential value — Its history — Hodgson com- 
munications — The Isaac Thompson case — Mrs. Chenno- 
weth and the Tausch case — The ear of Dionysius — Direct 
communications possibly due to Telepathy — Elimination 
of Telepathy — The theory of Cross-correspondences — 
Analogies — Example — Evidential value of cross-corre- 
spondences — Absence of reasoned criticism on the 
negative side — Inadequacy of natural explanations — The 
possibilities of Telepathic causes — Extra-terrene simulation 
— General conclusions ... ... ... ... ... 100-133 

CHAPTER VII 
CONCLUSION 

Dowsing — Psychometry — Hauntings — Reasons for 
om ission — Reason and unreason — Analogy from contro- 
versies on Evolution ... ... ... ... ... ... 134-136 



CHAPTER I 
EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 

Before any useful progress can be made in the 
examination of phenomena it is obviously necessary 
definitely to decide and fix the rules on which the 
evidence for such phenomena is to be appraised. 
It is here that much confusion of thought is 
encountered. 

It is futile to build if the foundations are unstable, 
to discuss the implications of phenomena, to construct 
theories on them, unless we are sure that the pheno- 
mena themselves are adequately vouched for. 

It may be well to clear the ground by emphasizing 
the distinction between a fact, and the evidence for a 
fact. This is the more important as people, who have 
had intimate personal experiences of a certain nature, 
specially, for example, in communication with the 
disembodied, fail to realize that such experiences, 
although absolutely and finally convincing to them- 
selves, may not be evidential. Mr. Constable puts 
this very clearly when he says {Personality and 
Telepathy, p. 314) — " Many of us know, outside 
cognition, that this communion is a fact, but the 
knowledge is purely personal. We have no human 
evidence to offer of the fact, so that we can offer no 
proof to others who have not had like experience. " 

The above remarks must not be taken as in any 
way belittling or disparaging such purely " interior " 
experiences, for, as Sir Oliver Lodge says, (Raymond, 



2 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

p. 342), it is best if such experience " can be obtained 
privately and, with no outside assistance, by quiet 
and meditation." 

In effect, such experiences are not evidence, 
because they lie beyond and above evidence. Most 
certainly they lie beyond the scope of the practical 
treatment of the subject herein attempted. 

The definition of the laws of evidence on this 
subject is not a simple matter. Firstly, it should 
be made quite clear that the test of truth which is 
applicable to those departments of science dealing 
with inorganic nature, such as physics and chemistry, 
is not applicable here. 

This test is that of repetition. Thus, if a pro- 
position is made that, given certain conditions 
and certain processes, certain results follow — this 
proposition can be proved or disproved by simple 
repetition. 

If a chemist states that, by applying certain 
reagents to certain substances and following certain 
procedure in the application of heat, pressure, and 
so forth, he gets a certain result, it is at once possible 
for any other qualified chemist to verify or disprove 
his conclusions by repeating the experiment any 
number of times. 

In inorganic science, then, the test of repetition 
can be applied just as often as it is possible to obtair 
the same materials and conditions, the necessarj 
apparatus, and the services of a competent experi- 
menter. This, generally, means that the test car 
be applied at will. 

The evidence for the phenomena which we are 
now considering will certainly not sustain the test of 



EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 3 

repetition. One reason alone, amongst others, is 
sufficient to account for this, namely, that we are 
never in a position to assure identical conditions. 
Conditions may be approximately equal in many 
cases, but we are certainly never able definitely to 
assure that they will so be. 

Are we, therefore, to say that the evidence for 
psychic phenomena is not amenable to scientific 
analysis, that it is even too uncertain and fickle to be 
worthy of scientific consideration ? Surely not ! 

When we pass to those departments of science 
which deal with organic nature we find that the 
criterion of repetition can, by no means, be rigidly 
applied. In biology the conditions of experiment 
are, to a greater or a less degree, uncontrollable. 
Theories and hypotheses are built up, not on the 
unvarying results of repetition under identical con- 
ditions, but on the average results of experiments 
and observations where both the conditions of the 
experiment and the material (vital organisms) 
experimented upon, are, to a greater or less extent 
(but always to some extent) uncontrollable. Gurney 
{Phantasms of the Living, cap. 1) puts this very 
clearly. " Biological science ... is at work not 
on steadfast substances with immutable qualities 
like those of the inorganic world, but on substances 
whose very nature is to change . . . The 
unconquerable spontaneity of the organic world is for 
ever setting previous generalization at defiance/' 

To some readers the above may seem so obvious as 
to need, no more than a passing reference. But this 
can hardly be the case when we find a distinguished 
physiologist, Dr. Tuckett {Evidence for the Super- 



4 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

natural, Cap. 1, Kegan Paul), laying down as a 
rule for the consideration of evidence for super- 
normal phenomena that " In problems where repeti- 
tion of the process of verification is not possible 
. . . the only rational attitude is humbly to 
say " we do not know." 

Of course in the widest sense it is a truism that 
" we do not know " anything. But, using the 
words in their ordinary sense, a moment's reflection 
will show that, by a rigid application of this rule, very 
many of the most strongly held and firmly established 
theories in the organic sciences would be reduced to 
nothing more than humble speculative opinions. 

It is of course, open to the reader to follow Dr. 
Tuckett's advice and " to be agnostic about any 
causal sequence until the phenomena have been 
repeated under the same conditions a sufficient 
number of times to convert . . . probability 
. . . into relative certainty." If, however, he 
adopts this attitude in regard to supernormal pheno- 
mena he is logically bound to the same attitude in 
regard to many phenomena in science and " to be 
agnostic about " very many theories which are uni- 
versally considered to be so firmly established that 
no one would venture to argue against them. 

Dr. Schiller puts this very clearly, (Proc. S.P.R. 
Vol. XXVII., p. 197). 

" Even the best established laws of nature, 
rest in fact on a finite number of historical observa- 
tions, and in the case of laws which can be verified 
only with difficulty, or at long intervals, that 
number is by no means large. It takes seventy 
eight years (more or less) to verify the orbit of 



EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 



Halley's comet, and it would seem that at most 
about forty re-appearances of this luminary are 
on record. The atomic weight of some of the 
rarer metals has probably not been calculated 
more than three or four times, and finally there 
are whole sciences (like palaeontology) in which 
important conclusions repose upon single his- 
torical observations as to where a bone was 
found in a bed. Thus the name and fame, 
nay the very existence, of Pithecanthropus 
erectus, the ' Missing Link ' depend on the 
truthfulness and competence of Dr. Eugene 
Dubois's assurance that he had found a cranium 
sufficiently near a thigh bone for both to be 
attributed to the same creature." 
The evidence for supernormal phenomena is, 
cumulative not repetitive. 

The analogy to be adopted is, as Gurney says, that 
of the faggot composed of individual sticks of evi- 
dence, which taken separately are weak, but which 
in the aggregate constitute a stiff and unyielding body 
of evidence. 

So much for the general nature of the evidence 
which is to be examined. How then is the evidence 
to be obtained for such examination ? Is the in- 
quirer to confine his attention solely to the con- 
sideration of evidence obtained, and recorded, by 
others, or is he to endeavour to supplement and verify 
such records by personal experimentation ? 

To answer this question it is necessary to emphasize 
an important distinction between inquiry in this 
subject and inquiry in most departments of natural 
science. In the latter, reading and experiment 



6 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

proceed side by side — the lecture-room is but an 
annexe to the laboratory. Practical personal experi- 
ence is rightly considered essential. Generally speak- 
ing, experiment in inorganic science is always 
instructive and never, finally, misleading. The 
experimenter is dealing with phenomena which are 
invariably referable to the fundamental dimensions of 
space, mass, and time. The possible errors are those 
of instrumentation, observation and external inter- 
ference, these can, with time and patience, be elim- 
inated or, rather, to speak quite accurately, reduced 
within narrow and known limits. 

The personality of the experimenter does not, in 
such cases, have much effect. Mechanism is available 
to take the place of Sensation. One is not required 
to decide the temperature of liquids by placing the 
hand in them. The thermometer is available for 
this purpose. The influence of the personality of the 
observer is, then, confined to the possible visual 
errors in reading the thermometer. 

The ultimate appeal, therefore, is always to 
mechanism. In psychic experimentation, however, 
we have generally no mechanism to help us. The 
experimenter is his own apparatus, his own Psycho- 
scope. He is dealing with phenomena which are, 
by definition, extra-normal, and not referable to 
physical dimensions. He is evaluating these 
phenomena by their sensory effects on himself, and, 
even so, not only effects on his normal consciousness, 
his normal senses, but on that obscure extra-normal 
or subliminal intelligence. 

It is clear therefore, that uninstructed experiment 
is very likely to be misleading. It is surely best that 



EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 7 

the inquirer should defer personal experiment until 
he has made some little study of the recorded results 
of the lengthy and laborious experiments of tried 
observers, and has, thereby, made himself acquainted 
with the immense complexity of the subject and the 
manifold possibilities of error. By so doing he is 
far more likely to arrive at a just and balanced 
opinion. And, having thus arrived, he will be able, 
should opportunity occur and inclination lead, to 
engage in personal experiment which may have 
results of real evidential value. 

If then the inquirer is to rely on the records of 
others, it becomes a matter of first importance to 
decide the grounds on which such records are to be 
accepted or rejected. 

The first essential is, obviously, that the inquirer 
should be satisfied as to the integrity of those who 
have made the records under his survey. Thus, for 
example, we want to be sure that the reports of the 
Piper Sittings in the Proceedings of the S.P.R. 
or of the various sittings recorded in " Raymond •' 
are fair and accurate records and are not in any way 
garbled or edited, expanded or compressed, so as to 
give an unfair or distorted view. 

In short, we want to feel quite sure that the 
observers have not, to use a colloquialism, " faked " 
the observations. 

Direct proof of integrity is, of course, impossible, 
but, if anyone, after examining the names of the 
authors of the various papers in the S.P.R. Proceed- 
ings herein referred to, still believes in the " fake " 
hypothesis, he stands self convicted of most irrational 
prejudice. 



8 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

However, much we may dislike psychical research, 
or however strongly we may disbelieve in any super- 
normal phenomena, we must be fair and must receive 
records furnished by responsible persons, or publish- 
ed by a responsible society, as being fair and accurate 
as far as fairness and accuracy can be assured by 
honesty and care. 

Such an admission does not exclude the possibility 
that the recorders are unconsciously deceived ; that 
the observers are malobservant. 

This possibility must be carefully considered, the 
more so as, in some form or other, it has been, and 
even is, largely used as a rapid and (superficially) 
effective argument for disposing of any phenomena 
which are incapable of normal explanation. It is 
so easy, and, for the pure materialist so comforting, 
simply to say " the thing did not happen at all ; 
they only thought it happened." 

The possibility of malobservation and unconscious 
deception is certainly not lightly to be dismissed in 
the case of records of phenomena which are of con- 
siderable complexity, where the conditions under 
which they took place were such as to impede 
accurate observation, and where records are incom- 
plete and not contemporary. 

In some departments of our subject the observa- 
tions, if so they may be called, are of the very simplest 
nature. Thus, accurately to record words spoken by 
the automatist and the sitters at a seance is surely 
a most simple " observation." It is unreasonable 
to admit the possibility that a person of normal 
auditory power sitting with pencil and note-book 
before him, for the express purpose of taking down 



EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 9 

spoken words could unconsciously misreport the 
words spoken. 

In the case of trance communications received by 
automatic writing the observation called for is even 
simpler being but to record the words spoken by the 
sitters. The subsequent transcription of the script 
is a matter of experience rather than observation. 

In the case of spontaneous Telepathy observation 
can hardly be said to be called for. The work 
consists of the accurate enumeration and trans- 
cription of documents and, in effect, the adequate 
cross-examination of witnesses. The thoroughness 
with which this work has been done, from the earliest 
days of systematic psychical research, will be shown 
in the next chapter. 

We see, then, that in two most important depart- 
ments of psychic research — Communication with the 
Disembodied, and Telepathy— no exceptional demands 
are made on the recorders. 

When, however, we have to consider the records of 
complex phenomena, which are not merely simple 
reports of spoken words, but descriptions of lengthy 
and complicated occurrences such as " physical " 
phenomena and materializations, we certainly do 
need to consider both whether the training, experience 
and temperament of the leading observers and 
investigators are such as to warrant confidence in the 
records of their observations, and also whether the 
conditions under which the observations were made 
were such as to render accurate observation impossible. 

In regard to the various authorities quoted herein, 
and indeed in regard to all the S.P.R. investigators, 
it can hardly be denied that their qualifications for 



10 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

these tasks are high. They include physicians, 
physiologists, psychologists, alienists, physicists and 
even conjurers. They are, therefore, largely com- 
posed of men whose training eminently fits them for- 
tius class of investigation. 

Such remarks as those of Dr. Tuckett who says 
(Evidence for the Supernatural \ p. 62). "The 
fact of the matter is that scientific men who are 
accustomed to accurate laboratory conditions and 
instruments which do not lie, are no match for the 
subtle degrees of deception practised by certain 
mediums, " are, therefore, pointless. Were, or are, 
such men as Lombroso, Morselli, Richet, Gurney, 
James, Sidgwick, Von Schrenk-Notzing, Hyslop, 
Hodgson, Newbold, Baggalay, and Carrington, 
accustomed only to " accurate laboratory conditions?" 

In this matter we have also to remember that 
experience grows with time. For this reason the 
records which I have quoted are all of recent date. 
It is surely, obvious that the years of experience 
which the S.P.R. investigators have had must have 
made them thoroughly familiar with all the artifices 
of fraud and the tricks of sub-conscious deception. 

In regard to temperament, let it be remembered 
that there is not one of the investigators, whose work 
is referred to herein, who did not commence his 
inquiries in a definitely sceptical spirit, and who has 
altered his views simply owing to the weight of the 
evidence. 

The attitude of these men and women has been, and 
is, intensely critical. The inquirer may therefore, 
rely that any evidence which has run the gauntlet of 
their investigation is as sound as honesty, care, and 



! 



EVIDENCE IN GENERAL 11 

skill can make it. The impartiality of their methods 
and the caution of their conclusions contrast 
favourably with the attitude of their opponents in 
the past and even, in some cases, in the present day. 
As that eminently sceptical and unbiassed inquirer 
Podmore wrote {Modern Spiritualism, Vol. 2, p. 
141, Metheun, 1902). 

" The dealings of science with spiritualism 
form an instructive chapter in the history of 
human thought. Not the least instructive 
feature is the sharp contrast between the tone 
and temper of those men of science, who, after 
examination, accepted, and those who, with or 
without examination, rejected the evidence for 
the alleged phenomena. Those who held 

themselves justified in believing 

showed in their writings a modesty, candour, and 
freedom from prepossession which shine the 
more conspicuously by comparison with the 
blustering arrogance of some of the champions 
of scientific orthodoxy. " 
It is unfortunate from the point of view of the 
unbiassed inquirer that the contributions on the oppo- 
site side of the controversy, contributions directed to 
prove that the evidence for alleged extra-normal 
phenomena is fallacious, are so very unequal either 
in number or quality to those on the affirmative side 
of the argument. 

There has been, indeed, much superficial general- 
ization, but, we have no publication from any man of 
science who has investigated the records of psychic 
research (with anything approaching the care and 
labour devoted to the compilation of those records) 



12 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

and has reached the conclusion that all the pheno- 
mena are fictious. 

A few words must now be said on the question of 
the " antecedent improbability " of the phenomena 
which we are to consider. The point is sometimes 
taken that these phenomena are so utterly at variance 
with the known laws of nature, so remote from the 
common experience of mankind, that no evidence 
can outweigh this antecedent improbability. 

Logically, this is a falsity, for as Mr. Massey said, 

" The antecedent improbability of any event is 

simply equivalent to the improbability that 

evidence reaching a certain standard of value 

will be forthcoming, and therefore, vanishes with 

the occurrence of such evidence. " 

In practice, however, the scales are heavily weighed 

in favour of the status quo ante. In effect, when 

we are confronted with new facts which appear to 

transcend all our preconceptions, we naturally exert 

every effort to fit them into the pigeon-holes of 

existing theories. It is only when we find that they 

cannot be made to fit in, that we are constrained to 

open new pigeon-holes, to adopt new hypotheses. 

But in this matter we must be fair. We must not 

use the sledge-hammer of intolerance to drive 

obviously square pegs into obviously round holes. 

Huxley's words are apposite : 

" Sit down before fact as a little child. Be 
prepared to give up every preconceived notion, 
and follow humbly wherever, and to whatsoever 
abyss Nature leads." 



CHAPTER II 

TELEPATHY 

There are several good reasons which make it fitting 
that any ordered consideration of psychic phenomena 
should start with Telepathy. 

Firstly, it has been under serious discussion for a 
considerable period for it was as far back as the year 
1876, when it was first brought to scientific notice 
by Sir Wm. Barrett's paper before the British Asso- 
ciation. 

Secondly, the general theory of the subject has 
received and sustained the test of time. An exhaus- 
tive presentation thereof was put forward more than 
30 years ago in that monument of patient research 
and brilliant analysis " Phantasms of the Living ." 
Although as might be expected, since that time much 
additional data has been brought to light, yet, as 
stated by Mrs. Sidgwick in her preface, to the new 
and abridged edition of this work, (Kegan Paul, 
1918), which edition is herein quoted, " its value 
has been but little affected by subsequent investi- 
gations." 

Thirdly, the subject is one which lends itself to 
(relatively) systematic treatment, and in which the 
records are of such a nature that critical analysis, and 
even numerical computation, can be applied thereto. 

Fourthly, the implications of Telepathy are 
profound. Thus Mr. Constable in that remarkable 



14 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

example of close reasoning " Personality and Teh" 
pathy " and in his subsequent " Telergy " (Kegan 
Paul, 1911 and 1918) logically developes the argu- 
ment that " If Telepathy be a fact of human experi- 
ence . . . then we have human experience 
which proves evidentially . . . that we exist, 
transcendent of time and space, in communion one 
with another as souls." 

Or, on the other hand, the acceptance of Tele- 
pathy provides us with an alternative explanation 
for many alleged communications with the dis- 
embodied, which, in its absence, might be confidently 
assumed to be veridicial. 

We require firstly a definition of Telepathy. The 
standard definition is that of Myers in " Phantasms 
of the Living." 

" Communication between human beings 
by other means than through the recognised 
channels of the senses." 

It is quite important to keep in mind the limitation 
imported by the words " human beings." Telepathy 
can strictly only include those communications in 
which the transmitter — the agent — is physically 
living, i.e. embodied. It excludes all communica- 
tions in which the agent is dead. It does not affirm 
or deny anything as to the latter. It simply excludes 
them from its department of enquiry. 

This line of demarcation is natural and judicious, 
as physical death is an occurrence which permits of 
fairly precise determination in time. As will be seen 
later, this is a matter of the first importance in deciding 
whether any alleged communication, referring to the 
death of the agent, is to be considered telepathic, 



TELEPATHY 15 

or whether it may be dismissed as a chance 
coincidence. 

It must, on the other hand, be emphasized, that 
this definition does not require that the agent shall 
be in possession of his normal faculties. It expressly 
includes cases where the agent is in a state of coma, 
which is so often the immediate precedent of death. 
The dividing line is merely death in the ordinary 
physiological sense. It is no doubt a matter for 
speculation whether the vital principle — the soul — 
does actually leave the tabernacle of the flesh at the 
moment when the physician would pronounce that 
life is extinct, or whether, as some think, this final 
dissociation takes place several hours later. This 
speculation, however, does not concern us here. 

The authors of " Phantasms of the Living " divided 
telepathic communications under two main heads 
" Experimental " and " Spontaneous." They define 
as experimental all those cases where the transference 
of impressions is deliberately sought by the trans- 
mitter, and, by prearrangement, observed by the 
receiver, or, to use the standard nomenclature, by 
the agent and percipient respectively. They count 
as " spontaneous " all those cases where no such 
transmission was prearranged or deliberately intended. 

Strict classification would require a third division 
namely, the semi-experimental where the agent acts 
consciously as in experimental telepathy, while the 
percipient is not consciously a party to the trans- 
mission. These cases are called by Mr. Gurney 
"transitional." 

The above definition of telepathy includes cases 
which are somewhat loosely called " clairvoyant " 



16 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

(in this term we include cases of clair audience since 
the essential telepathic transmission is the same in 
both cases, the difference being that the external- 
ization of the affect received by the percipient is, 
in the one case, visual, in the other, auditory). 

A few words in justification of this conclusion may 
be necessary. 

Clairvoyance, where agents and percipients are 
concerned, is obviously only a variety of Telepathy, 
An example will make this clear. " A " is in 
England. His friend " B " is dying in America. 
The ordinary telepathic case is that the affect from 
" B " to " A " is externalized by the latter as a vision 
of " B " present with " A " in England. Alterna- 
tively, the externalization may, as it sometimes does, 
take the form of a hallucination that the percipient 
" A " is present with " B " (say at his bedside) in 
America. 

The latter case is sometimes called " travelling 
clairvoyance," but as both visions are, of course, 
subjective, the modus operandi is obviously the 
same and telepathic, the percipient " A " receiving 
an affect from Agent " B " of which he may external* 
ize, as a locus, England or America. 

It may be said that cases of "pure " clairvoyance 
where there appears to be no agent involved, e.g. 
when a crystal gazer sees a picture of a landscape or 
a building, cannot be brought within the definition 
of Telepathy. 

I think, however, that there is no adequate evi- 
dence that crystal, or other, visions which are totally 
disconnected with any animate agent, are more than 
creations drawn from the storage of ideas of the seer, 



TELEPATHY 17 

an emergence, if one may use a contradiction in 
terms, of forgotten memories, cases where 
" cryptomnesia M is involved. 

Nor, also, can we generally be certain that a visual- 
ization of an inanimate object may not have an 
animate origin. Thus an affect from a friend might 
cause the percipient to externalize, not a vision of the 
friend, but a vision of something inanimate, closely 
associated, in memory, with that friend. Thus 
Mr. Gladstone's collars were as familiar to many 
people as his face. An affect from him might, 
therefore, have caused the percipient to externalize a 
collar of the familiar shape, instead of the face of the 
statesman. 

Enough has, I think, been said to show that there 
is no impropriety in including all " communica- 
tions between living beings other than through the 
normal channels of the senses " under the one heading 
of Telepathy. 

The first matter to be dealt with is the proof of 
Telepathy as a fact of human experience. Space 
does not permit of more than an outline of the methods 
by which proof has been obtained. Nor perhaps is 
it necessary as there are probably few impartial 
people who do not accept Telepathy as a fact. 

In regard to the Experimental department a very 
large number of trials have been made of such a 
nature that the number of successes which could 
be due to mere chance alone, can be accurately com- 
puted. We take an Agent " A " and a percipient 
" P " so separated that they cannot communicate 
with each other by normal means. " A " thinks of 
an object and " P " records his impression of what 



18 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

that object is. If the number of correct guesses is 
more than can be attributed to chance, it is proved, 
that some cause other than chance is at work. Anyone 
with a slight mathematical knowledge knows that the 
theory of probabilities enables us to form an exact 
estimate of the number of successes which can be 
attributed to chance in any series of trials of sufficient 
length. 

A very simple example may be given. Suppose 
" A " cuts a card at random from a pack, and that 
the experiment is that " P " shall guess the colour 
of the card cut. We see at once that the mathematical 
probability is that the guesses will be right just as 
often as they are wrong. 

As the length of the series increases the probability 
approximates more and more to certainty, and, in 
the limit, as mathematicians say, the probability 
becomes certainty. 

In this case suppose the percept to be right six 
times in ten, or 60 times in 100 trials, we should say 
rightly, that this might be accounted for by nothing 
more than chance, If right 600 times in 1,000 trials 
we should suspect the operation of something besides 
chance. If right 6,000 times in 10,000 trials we 
should be certain that some extra-normal influence, 
i.e. telepathy, was at work. As the number of trials 
increases, the number of successes above that given 
by chance, needed to establish the operation of tele- 
pathy becomes less. In 10,000 or more trials a very 
slight excess of correct results, even one or two per 
cent., above the figures which chance alone would 
give, demonstrates the presence of telepathy, since 
an application of the calculus of probabilities would 



TELEPATHY 19 

show us that the probability against the operation of 
mere chance was so enormous as to amount to a 
certainty that the coincidences were not due to 
chance. 

If any reader says that probability is not certainty, 
he may be reminded of the mathematical truism that 
certainty is only probability taken to the limit. No 
fact, even the rising and setting of the sun is an 
absolute certainty. That it will rise to-morrow is 
only a probability though a probability approxi- 
mating to certainty. The reader interested in the 
mathematical aspect of the question should consult 
the papers by Mr. H. F. Y. Edgeworth in Vol. Ill, 
Proc. S.P.R., also some extracts thereof in Phantasms 
of the Living, pp. 20-1. 

An enormous number of experiments (of a nature 
similar to the above, which permit of exact computa- 
tion of the possibilities of chance coincidence) have 
been carried out and recorded not only in England, 
but in France, America, and other countries. The 
results when summarized show that the successes 
are conclusively greater than is mathematically 
possible by the operation of chance alone. 

Recent experiments have not generally been of the 
simple type in which the operation of chance can be 
numerically estimated. They have principally been 
directed towards elucidating the conditions most 
favourable to the operation of telepathy, and other 
matters connected with its mode of action which are 
still obscure. Hence these experiments have usually 
taken the form of the transmission of ideas and 
mental pictures. In such cases an exact numerical 
computation of the possibilities of chance cannot be 



20 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 



s, 



made. It is obvious, however, that in these case: 
when the subject thought of by the agent may be 
anything in the universe, or a purely imaginery 
concept, the chance of but one correct guess even in 
a series of great length is almost infinitely small. 

For these later experiments the reader is referred 
to the following papers in the Proc. S.P.R., Vols. XXI. 
and XX VII. , Experiments in Thought Transference, 
Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden. Vol. XXVII. 
Thought Transference— Experimental, Dr. J. E. Coover 
and Some Recent Experiments in Thought Trans- 
ference, Miss Verrall (Mrs. Salter). Vol. XXIX. 
Report on a Series of Experiments in Guessing, Mrs. 
Verrall. 

The results of the Miles-Ramsden experiments 
may be the most convincing to some readers, since 
agent and percipient were always separated by a 
considerable distance. Space does not allow the 
consideration of the whole of the experiments, but 
the first series {vide Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXL, pp. 60- 
70) may be briefly summarized. 

The agent, Miss Miles was in London, the per- 
cipient, Miss Ramsden, at Gerrards Cross, Bucking- 
hamshire, twenty miles from London. Fifteen 
experiments were made. The ideas selected by the 
agent were not restricted in any way. 

No less than three of the percepts were absolutely 
correct. (" Spectacles," " Hands," " Sunset over 
Brompton Oratory "), the agent's idea emerging at 
once in the percipient's imagination. In six cases 
the agent's idea emerged amongst other impressions. 
Three cases were doubtful, and there were only three 
complete failures, i,e. f cases where the percepts had 



TELEPATHY 21 

no connection whatever with the idea selected for 
transmission. 

It will be agreed that the proportion of correct 
results obtained cannot possibly be referred to the 
operation of chance. 

In regard to spontaneous telepathy the diversity 
of the occurrences to an agent, which may initiate a 
transmission, is obviously so great that, as in the last 
mentioned experimental cases, no numerical applica- 
tions can be made. In the case, however, of one 
occurrence to the agent, namely death, which is the 
most fruitful cause of telepathic transmissions, 
numerical methods of considerable accuracy can be 
applied. We know from the Registrar General's 
returns the exact proportion of deaths in any year. 
Starting from this fact the authors of " Phantasms 
of the Living" demonstrated that the number of cases 
where a percept of, or relating to, an agent, coincided 
with the death of that agent, was vastly greater than 
could be accounted for by chance coincidence. The 
method adopted is given at length in Cap. XIII. of 
the above book. It may be briefly summarized as 
follows : — 

A period of twelve years (from 1874-1885 inclusive) 
was taken. A census of hallucinations during that 
period was made by addressing to a large number 
of persons, selected at random, a clearly and simply 
worded question as to whether or no they had 
experienced a hallucination, visual, auditory, or 
tactile, during that period. Some 5,700 replies 
were received, of which twenty-three only were in the 
affirmative. This number of persons was amply large 
enough and sufficiently varied to be considered a fair 



22 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

sample of the adult population of the country ; 
(many everyday statistics are based on smaller 
groups). The assumption was therefore justified 
that such hallucinations are experienced by about 
twenty-three persons in 5,700, i.e., one in 248, or 
four tenths of one per cent, approximately. This 
figure, incidentally, disposes of the oft-made state- 
ment that hallucinations are a common occurrence. 

The probability that any person, taken at random, 
would during the period of twelve years experience a 
hallucination was therefore 2T8 = 00403. 

The Registrar General's returns for the above 
period gave the average death rate as twenty-two per 
thousand. The probability that any particular person 
would die within twelve hours of an assigned point 
in time during the selected period was therefore 
i%h*th = 0000603. The probability that, during 
this period, a hallucination of a person and the 
death of that person, would coincide in time (within a 
limit of twelve hours plus or minus) was, therefore, 
•00403 x -0000603 = 000000243, i.e., one in 
4,110,000. Chance alone could therefore produce 
but one coincidental hallucination in over four 
million adults. 

The authors, however, found that no less than 
twenty-one perfectly attested cases had occurred during 
that period amongst a circle of adults, selected at 
random, which could not possibly have exceeded 
300,000 and had, indeed, been very inadequately 
canvassed, the limit of time being twelve hours, 
before or after, the ascertained death of the agent. 

The reasons which justify the assumption that the 
circle from which the coincident cases were drawn 



TELEPATHY 23 

could not have exceeded 300,000 and was probably 
much smaller, are quite convincing, but too lengthy 
to quote here (vide Phantasms of the Living, pp. 382-3). 

By appropriate calculation it will be found that 
H the odds against the occurrence by accident of as 
many coincidences as the twenty-one which the circle 
(300,000) produced, are about forty million billion 
trillions to one." In very truth a probability amounting 
to certainty that these coincidental hallucinations 
were due to telepathy and not to chance. 

In the earlier days of psychic research the criticism 
was sometimes made that the percipients in the 
cases recorded only thought that they had a hallu- 
cination connected with the agent before they heard 
of the occurrence (death, accident and so forth) by 
normal means. That although they felt certain 
that they experienced the hallucination before they 
heard of the occurrence, yet in fact they had nothing 
but a vague feeling which at the time they did not 
connect with the agent, but only made the connection 
after they had heard by normal means of the occur- 
ence (e.g. death) to the agent. We have no evi- 
dence that such tricks of memory are anything but 
extremely rare but in any case the precautions adopted 
by the authors of Phantasms of the Living and sub- 
sequently applied to all cases admitted by the S.P.R. 
as evidential, eliminate this possibility. 

No case is admitted as evidential unless it can be 
proved either by a dated entry, in a diary or other 
authenticated document, or by the attestation of 
independent witnesses that the percipient had either 
recorded in writing, or related verbally, his hallucina- 
tion, before he had, or could have, heard of the 



! 



24 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

occurrence to the agent by normal means. The 
standard of evidence required in this point is at least 
as high as that called for in a Court of Law. 

No impartial person who has perused the records 
of the subject can, I think, logically refuse to accept 
Telepathy as a proved fact. 

In regard to those who do still refuse Mr. Con- 
stable {Personality and Telepathy p. 118) eliminates 
them from further consideration gently yet effec- 
tively. 

" The cumulative weight of the evidence for 
telepathy is now so great . . . that many marked 
men of science accept it as, practically, proving 
the fact. It is true also that many scientific 
men are said to reject the evidence as unreliable, 
but I think they must be held to ignore rather 
than to reject. For scientific rejection implies 
a decision arrived at after full investigation and 
criticism of the evidence, and I can find no report 
of any such full investigation and criticism, 
by any marked man of science, followed by 

rejection. 

# # # # 

We have then on the one hand many scientific 
and thoughtful men who after full investigation 
and criticism . . . have come to the conclusion 
that it is practically proved to be a fact. We 
have on the other hand many scientific and 
thoughtful men who without any full investiga- 
tion and criticism of the evidence . . . declare 
that telepathy is but the creation of fraud, a 
fantasy of human imagination or the result 
of self-deception. To the ordinary individual 



TELEPATHY 25 

the former class of scientific men offer a 
conclusion based on reason. The latter a 
conclusion based on dogmatic assertion" 
In addition to the proof of Telepathy we need to 
obtain some idea of how it works. For the com- 
plete theory of the subject I must refer the reader 
to the above-quoted work. 

It has been powerfully worked out in full detail 
by Mr. Constable and the best thing which the 
writer can do is to try to give an abstract thereof ; 
though he is fully aware that an attempt adequately 
to summarise in a few sentences the results of Mr. 
Constable's lengthy analysis is rash. However, 
the attempt must be made and if the result is un- 
satisfying, the reader must be referred to Mr. Con- 
stable's own works for a full and adequate exposition. 
The theory is that telepathic communications 
take place not directly between human brains but 
indirectly between the intuitive, or sub-liminal, 
selves of agent and percipient. Communication 
is in impression and is itself spaceless and timeless 
but is manifested in space and time in idea. The 
emergent idea results from the operation of the 
understanding of the percipient. The understanding 
being, so to speak, set to work by the sub-liminal 
intelligence which is itself affected by the telepathic 
impulse. 

The agent does not transmit a full mental picture 
directly to the brain of the percipient. He transmits 
but an impression, and the percipient, from his 
own storage of ideas, externalizes, or, may we say, 
clothes, the impression so that it becomes a percept 
referable to ordinary physical dimensions. 



r 



26 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

The operations at either end of the transmission 
are dimensioned and physical, the transmission itself 
is undimensioned and psychical. 

Hence for such a transmission " near and far " 
must have no meaning, which is precisely what we 
find in the records of telepathy, where space is found 
to be no barrier, and the law of inverse squares ceases 
to apply. 

It seems to the writer that it is only by a theory, 
which postulates that the affect on the percipient 
is in intuition, that we can account for the variety 
of the percepts on various percipients caused by one 
type of occurrence to the agents, namely death. 
Perhaps the most common percept is a phantasm 
representing the agent as he usually appeared to the 
percipient in ordinary life. 

As an example, among many, of the " ordinary 
life " phantasms Case 28 {Phantasms of the Living) 
might be quoted as typical. 

This was a case of two old friends and colleagues 
in a certain office : N.J.S. and F.L. 

The latter had been absent from his office for a 

day or two owing to, what was then thought to be, 

only a slight indisposition. The narrative proceeds : 

" On Saturday evening, March 24th, N.J.S. 

who was sitting at home ...... saw his 

friend F.L. standing before him dressed in his 
usual manner. 

N.J.S. noticed the details of his dress — his 
hat with a black band, his overcoat unbuttoned 
and a stick in his hand. He (the phantasm) 
looked with fixed regard at N.J.S. and then 
passed away . . . He (the percipient) turned 






TELEPATHY 27 

to his wife and asked the time. She said 

twelve minutes to nine. He then said. The 

reason I ask you is that F.L. is dead, and I 

have just seen him." 

The following day the percipient received news 

of his friend's death, which had taken place at almost 

exactly the same time the previous evening, as that 

at which the phantasm had appeared to him. 

There are, however, a substantial number of cases 
where the agent does not appear in his normal con- 
dition, or appears only partially, and also where the 
percipient's vision is not affected but where hearing 
or touch are the senses on which the percept falls. 

A few cases, among many, may be quoted from 
the collection in Phantasms of the Living. 

Case 161. The death of the agent took place 
in Canada, the coincident precept in England is 
recorded by the percipient as follows : — 

" I saw the curtain at the side of the bed 

slightly pulled aside and a hand with the back 

towards me appearing round the curtain. I 

recognised the ring on the hand as that of my 

cousin and dear friend, Captain CM." 

Case 205. Lady Chatterton saw a phantasm of a 

Father Hewitt, O.S.B., for whom she had a great 

regard, dressed in a Benedictine Habit of dazzling 

whiteness. He seemed " high above me in the air." 

The next morning's post brought her news that he 

died at the same time that she saw the phantasm. 

Case 207. The percipient saw above her " thou- 
sands of angels and, in front of them all, my friend." 
It was subsequently found that the friend died at the 
time of this vision 



28 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

In another case dated 1882 (loc cit. pp. 327-8) the 
Percipient (Miss Summerbell) had been for many 
years on terms of close intimacy with the family 
of a Dutch Nobleman who resided in Holland. She 
stated " I was staying at Tunbridge Wells (on July 
17th) and suffering from neuralgia and lying unable 
to sleep ... It was beginning to be light, and I 
distinctly saw every object in the room. I do not 
know if it is necessary to say that in Holland when a 
person of distinction dies a ' prieur d'enterrement \ 
is employed. This man is dressed in black with 
dress-coat, knee-breeches and cocked hat with bands 
of crape hanging from the corners. It is his office 
to go to all the houses where the deceased was known, 
and announce the death. On the morning of which 
I speak I saw, a c prieur d'enterrement ' enter. He 
said nothing but stood with a long paper in his 
hand .... I looked at my watch, it was nearly five 
o'clock. I looked towards the man but he was gone. 

It is nearly six years since I lived in Holland and 
I had almost forgotten this custom of announcing 
deaths. " 

Subsequently news was received that the friend 
had died about one-and-a-half hours before the 
phantasm appeared to Miss Summerbell. 

Gurney appends to the above the following in- 
structive note : — 

" We may note here how curiously the idea of 
death, in working itself out, availed itself of 
materials that had long been dormant — the 
slumbering memories which associated Dutch 
Customs with Dutch friends in the percipient's 
mind " 



TELEPATHY 29 

The above cases, which are only a few among many 
of the same sort, seem to show, quite clearly, that the 
transmitted impression is clothed from the perci- 
pient's own storage of ideas. 

In case 205 the Percipient sees the Agent, illumin- 
ated and elevated from the ground as conventional 
theology might depict the flight of a holy soul from 
this earth. 

In case 207, where the percipient was a devout 
domestic servant, we get a replica of that not un- 
common religious picture which shows the soul of 
the departed maiden being borne through the air 
by angelic figures. 

In the last quoted case the externalization is not 
even that of the agent at all but of a circumstance 
which would naturally accompany the death of the 
agent, which circumstance was obviously dug out 
of a deeply submerged portion of the percipient's 
storage of ideas. 

The impulse being the same the percipients 
clothe it differently. In the first case (No. 161) 
the "clothing " is incomplete and extends to no more 
than a phantasm of a small portion of the agent. 

Auditory cases are numerous and it is hardly 
necessary to quote any example as they all appear 
to take the same general form, namely, that a voice 
is heard. 

Tactile cases are rare, and, by themselves, generally 
non-evidential, as it is easy to suppose that the sensa- 
tion may be caused by involuntary muscular move- 
ment and not by any telepathic impulse. 

They are sometimes, however, combined with 
auditory cases there being a coincident effect on 



30 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

both senses, in which case they may become 
evidential. 

Thus in Case 293 the percipient, a railway man, 
when on night duty felt " a hand placed on his 
shoulder and a voice say distinctly, " Joe your 
mother wants you." The next day he received 
news of his mother's death. 

The variety in the nature of the percept in spon- 
taneous telepathy, the great extent of which can 
only be appreciated by a careful perusal of the 
numerous cases in Phantasms of the Living, seems 
strongly to support the theory ennunciated above. 
The theory does not rest on Mr. Constable's authority 
alone although he is undoubtedly responsible for 
the full development thereof. Thus Gurney {Phan- 
tasms of the Living, p. 348) says " The embodiment 
of the idea (Gurney 's idea = Constable's impression) 
implies a creative process carried out by the per- 
cipient's own mind." 

Although the reader may feel satisfied that the 
theory propounded fits the records of spontaneous 
telepathy, he may be doubtful as to how far the 
experimental cases can be brought under the same roof. 

It is true that the simpler experimental cases 
such as the transmission of numbers and diagrams 
might be explained by a theory of direct transmission 
from brain to brain, by hypothetical brain waves. 
The more complex experimental cases, such as the 
later Miles — Ramsden experiments, shade into the 
elementary spontaneous cases. Hence there seems 
to be no adequate reason for assuming more than 
one general mode of transmission in both departments 
of Telepathy, 



TELEPATHY 31 

The importance of Mr. Constable's theory lies 
in its implications on the question of Communica- 
tion with the disembodied which have been referred 
to on page 14 above. Its bearing both in the 
positive and negative direction must not be lost 
sight of when considering the evidential value of 
such communications. For this reason I have thought 
it necessary to devote some little space to it. 



CHAPTER III 

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 

Under this heading may be grouped all those 
phenomena in which the alleged spirit operators 
manifest themselves by the movement or modifica- 
tion of animate or inanimate objects, excluding 
materialization which will be dealt with separately. 
"Physical" phenomena of a kind similar to those 
manifested by professed spiritualists, have, indeed, 
been recorded long before spiritualism as a system 
had begun to take shape at all. Some of the marvels 
which tradition has attributed to the early and 
mediaeval saints are not dissimilar to the modern 
manifestations of "physical" mediumship. Levita- 
tions for example were recorded in the case of St. 
Teresa and others, and immunity from the effects 
of fire was claimed for many saints, centuries before 
it figured in the program of Daniel Douglas Home. 
Also at a later era, in the middle of the seventeenth 
century, those eccentric manifestations called 
" Poltergeists " consisting of mysterious knockings 
and rappings, ringing of bells, throwing of furniture 
and crockery, claimed public attention. Although 
probably due to no more supernormal causes than 
the desire of mischievous children to mistify their 
parents or malicious servants to frighten their 
employers, yet at the time some of these occurrences 
obtained highly respectable attestation. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 33 

Thus the disturbances at Epworth parsonage 
which were of the usual description (1716-17) are 
vouched for by Samuel Wesley and his family, and 
an earlier case, " The Drummer of Tedworth " is 
vouched for by the learned Dr. Joseph Glanvil, 
F.R.S., in the oft-quoted Sadducismus Triumphatus 
(1688). The manifestations connected with the 
"Drummer" were of the usual order with one or 
two additions which gave artistic verisimilitude to 
an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative. The 
afflicted house was that of a Justice of the Peace who 
had sentenced the drummer to imprisonment as a 
rogue and a vagabond. In addition to the knock- 
ings, thumpings, and drummings the Justice's 
butler was terrified by the vision of a " Great body 
with two red and glaring eyes " and a horse in his 
stable was found one morning "with a hind leg so 
firmly fixed in its mouth " that it required the strength 
of several men to remove it. Such a remarkable 
contortion must indeed have seemed evidence of 
supernatural power of no mean order. These 
" Poltergeist " performances, amongst which the 
Cock Lane and Stockwell Ghosts have a prominent 
place, are, though often most amusing, only of 
serious value to the historical student who is tracing 
the connection between ancient superstition and 
modern credulity. From an evidential point of 
view they are valueless. Those who recorded them 
had no knowledge of the far-reaching powers of self- 
deception, suggestion and illusion. Nor as Mr. 
Podmore has shown, is the documentary evidence 
of any value. They need, therefore, detain us no 
longer. We should, however, note that Sir William 



34 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

Barrett has given (Proc. S.P.R. Vol. xxv., pp. 337- 
413) some recent authenticated cases of Poltergeists, 
two of which came under his own notice. 

We should observe that believers in these phe- 
nomena did not attribute them to the operation of 
the spirits of the departed. They were invariably 
thought to be the workings of a race of non-human 
beings: the goblins, fairies, demons, etc., of romance. 
The linking up of these phenomena with disembodied 
intelligences, the spirits of those who had once 
lived on this earth, was the work of Spiritualism. 

We must next note, briefly, the earlier definitely 
spiritualist manifestations of physical phenomena. 

It is well known that the non-physical department 
of Spiritualism was in full working order some years 
before the physical department was included. Spirit- 
ualism as a definite system may be said to have been 
originated by Andrew Jackson Davis in America. 
Many of his " revelations " had already seen the light 
when attention was first directed to the rappings, 
etc., produced by the Fox family at Arcadia, N.Y., 
in 1847. They were of the most ordinary descrip- 
tion but were then a novelty. 

The fame thereof eventually reached the ears of 
Davis who, after personal investigation, and pro- 
longed consideration, gave his solemn certificate 
to the supernormal nature of these manifestations. 
From that day forward these, and their numerous 
and complex developments, have formed an integral 
part of the Spiritualist system and an essential 
portion of the stock-in-trade of many practitioners 
of mediumship. 

The simple rappings were soon elaborated into 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 35 

more complex and startling phenomena both by the 
Fox family themselves, and also by their successors. 
As early as 1850 the mediumship of Mrs. Tamlin 
produced the ringing of bells, playing of musical 
instruments, movements of articles and similar 
phenomena which have been common occurrences 
in the modern seance. 

The mediumship of a Mr. Gordon produced a 
year or two later some remarkable examples of 
levitation not inferior to those of the great Daniel 
Douglas Home. 

At this period we find the first record of any attempt 

at the scientific observation of these phenomena. 

1 Robert Hare, M.D., Professor of Chemistry at 

1 Pennsylvania University, and a member of several 

American learned societies, devoted considerable 

' attention to their study and published his observa- 

! tions and conclusions in a book entitled Experi- 

\ mental Investigations, Spirit Manifestations, Etc., 

published in New York in 1855. An example of 

i Gordon's mediumship given therein (pp. 291-2) may 

be quoted. The actual narrator was Mr. Isaac 

Rehn, President of the Harmonical Society, of 

i Philadelphia. 

The house in which the phenomena took 
place had two parlours with folding doors between. 
The two tables around which the company sat 
occupied the entire length of the front parlour, 
leaving barely room enough for the chairs at 
the front end of the room ; the other end of 
the table extended quite to the folding doors, 
leaving, of course, no passage at either end. 
It happened that I was seated at that end of 



36 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

the table projecting into the doorway. The 
medium, Mr. Gordon, was seated about midway 
of the tables, on the left, the other seats being 
occupied by the rest of the company. 

After a variety of manifestations had occurred, 
the medium was raised from his seat by an 
invisible power, and, after some apparent re- 
sistance on his part, was carried through the 
doorway between the parlours, directly over 
my head, and his head being bumped along 
the ceiling, he passed to the further end of the 
back room, in which there was no one beside 
himself. 

Although all the individuals present had not 
equally good opportunity of ascertaining the 
facts in this case, the room having been some- 
what darkened, still his transit over the end of 
the table at which I was seated, and the utter 
impossibility of the medium passing out in 
other way than over our heads, his continued 
conversation while thus suspended, and his 
position, as indicated by the sound, with other 
facts in the case, leave no reasonable doubt of 
the performance of the feat. 
In England, although there had previously been a 
few minor manifestations of physical phenomena, 
notably the performances of Mrs. Hayden which 
were vouched for by no less a celebrity then Pro- 
fessor De Morgan, physical mediumship may be 
said to date from 1860, when what Podmore (loc. cit. 
Book III. cap 3) calls the American Invasion com- 
menced. Apart from D.D. Home, whose fame 
justly entitles him to separate consideration, a sue- 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 37 

cession of American mediums, amongst whom the 
Davenport Brothers, Squire, Redman, and Foster 
were conspicuous, visited this country. Squire's 
speciality was table turning on a hitherto unparalleled 
scale. One of his performances was described by 
Dr. Lockhart Robertson in the Spiritual Magazine 
April 1860, as follows : — 

" A heavy circular table, made of birch and 
strongly constructed, was lifted a somersault 
in the air and thrown on the bed, the left hand 
only of Mr. Squire being placed on the surface, 
his other hand held, and his legs tied to the 
chair on which he sat. The table was after- 
wards twice lifted on to the head of the writer 
and of Mr. Squire. Only a strong force applied 
at the further side of the circular top could have 
produced this result. This force Mr. Squire, 
as is evident from his position (standing close 
to the writer at one point of the circle with his 
hands tied), could not have exerted. The 
efforts of the writer to prevent this lifting of the 
table had no influence on the strange unseen 
force applied to lift the table thus against his 
wish and force. 
Foster specialized in spirit writing. An account 
of a typical performance was given by Mr. H. Spicer 
in his book Strange Things Among Us. The sitting 
took place at the medium's residence. 

Mr. Foster then said he was about to leave 
the room, and desired me, when left alone, 
to tear off some ten or twelve slips of paper, 
write upon each of them the name of some 
deceased friend, roll each slip up so tightly 



38 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

as to be a mere shapeless lump of paper ; then 
roll up as many more as I pleased, in the same 
manner, but blank, and mix the whole together 
in a heap on the table. Having given these 
instructions, he left the room, closing the door, 
and went upstairs .... I then wrote down 
the names of six or seven deceased friends 
or acquaintances, purposely including one or 
two with whom the lapse of years had made my 
thoughts of late but little familar, rolled up the 
strips with at least thirty others (blank) and 
flung the whole in a confused heap on the table 
so as to be completely indistinguishable, even 
to myself. Mr. F., presently returning, handed 
me the pencil and alphabet, and, after a little 
" spirit " jargon, the written slips were selected 
from the rest, and the names they bore spelled 
out (i.e. by the raps) with unfailing precision 
... In reality I myself was not aware of the name 
contained in the slip under consideration until 
spelled out. Mr. F. afterwards varied his 
experiments by exhibiting the several names 
written in large rosy characters, as though 
scratched with a bramble, on his arm, but these 
may be set aside as easily producible by chemical 
means ; and, indeed, I have heard of an accom- 
plished young lady who has declared that they 
can, with a little practice, be produced at 
pleasure upon any arm, and who proved it by 
writing them on her own. Mr. F.'s remarks 
upon the spiritual agency were of the usual 
character and not worth recording. But to 
revert, for a moment, to the only point really 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 39 

deserving attention, the clairvoyant reading, I 
confess I am at a loss to suggest any explanation 
of this complete and clever mystery, or mystifi- 
cation, excepting that it is clairvoyance. 
Before very long a number of British mediums, 
both professional and amateur, were following in 
the footsteps of the American invaders. 

It will serve no useful purpose to devote space to a 
description of their manifestations since the docu- 
mentary evidence for these is generally of the most 
unsatisfactory description. A short space must, 
however, be given to the famous Mrs. Guppy and to 
an account of her most remarkable manifestation 
which latter, if not instructive, will at least be 
amusing. 

Mrs. Guppy, who before her marriage was a Miss 
Nichol, first exhibited phenomena in the year 1866. 
She was then living with a sister of the famous 
naturalist, Dr. A. R. Wallace, who lent the weight 
of his authority to her earlier manifestations. Later 
Mrs. Guppy became associated with two well-known 
professional mediums, Messrs. Heme and Williams, 
and it was at one of their seances that the famous 
" Transit of Guppy " occurred. Mrs. Guppy 
it should be remarked was an exceedingly bulky 
lady. 

The account given in The Echo, June 8th, 1871, is 
as follows : — 

I attended a circle at the house of the Mediums, 
Messrs. Heme and Williams (at Hackney) 
last Saturday. The Company consisted of 
three ladies and seven gentlemen. The room 
we entered was on the first floor, separated 



40 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

from a smaller room at the back* by folding 
doors which were now thrown open so that we 
could examine the inner room. 

The only articles of furniture were a table 
with a musical box on it, and a few chairs. 

Upon our sitting round the table all the doors 
were closed and locked. 

The seance began by one of the mediums 
saying the Lord's Prayer. Next the musical 
box, which only played sacred music, was wound 
up. 

Almost immediately we saw lights floating 
about the room. We then heard voices said 
to be those of the" spirits "John and Katie King, 

John's voice was a very deep one. Katie's 
was more like a whisper but still perfectly 
distinct. 

When Katie was asked if she would bring us 
something she said " Yes, yes." One of the 
visitors remarked in a joking way " I wish she 
would bring Mrs. Guppy." Upon which 
another said " good gracious, I hope not ! 
She is one of the biggest women in London." 

Katie's voice at once said " I will, I will," 
but John's deep voice shouted out " you can't 
do it Katie." 

We were all laughing at the absurdity of the 
idea when John's voice called out " Keep still 
can't you." In an instant some one cried 
" Good God, there's something on my head." 
Simultaneously there came a heavy bump on 
the table. A match was instantly struck and 
there was Mrs. Guppy standing on the table, 






PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 41 

the whole of us being seated round it, closely 
packed together, as we had sat since the be- 
ginning of the seance. Both doors were still 
locked. 

Mrs. Guppy had one arm over her eyes with 
a pen in her hand and an account book in her 
other hand which hung by her side. She told 
us that the last thing she could remember was 
that she was sitting at home (at Highbury, 
three miles away) making up her weekly household 
accounts, her friend Miss Neyland being in the 
room with her reading the newspaper. 

The ink in Mrs. Guppy's pen was still wet 
and the last word in the account book, " onions " 
was scarcely dry. Three minutes did not 
elapse between the remark about bringing her, 
and the time she was found on the table. 
At the conclusion of the seance several of the party 
escorted Mrs. Guppy to her home. 

There they learned from Miss Neyland, a friend 
and fellow medium of Mrs. Guppy, that an hour 
or two previously she had been sitting with her 
reading, when suddenly looking up, she found that 
her companion had disappeared leaving a " slight 
haze near the ceiling." 

Mrs. Guppy's husband, an aged gentleman, on 
being told of the disappearance of his wife remarked 
with perfect calm that " no doubt the spirits had taken 
her," and shortly afterwards sat down to his supper. 
The story is so delightful, especially this latter 
touch, that comment would spoil it. 

The year 1866 saw the appearance of David Duguid, 
a carpenter by trade, who was apparently the first 



42 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

person to produce " spirit paintings. " Mr. Pod- 
more (loc. cit. Vol. II, p. 86) describes one of his 
manifestations which he himself witnessed. 

Some ordinary photographer's cards, carte- 
de-visite size, were produced by the medium. 
The sitters were not allowed to touch these 
cards, lest they should interfere with the personal 
magnetism with which the cards were saturated. 
But in order that the visitor might be satisfied 
that no substitution was practised, a small 
corner was torn off each of the two cards se- 
lected for the experiment and the fragments 
were handed to me. I placed them securely 
in my pocket. Duguid then was fastened 
hands, arms, and legs to the chair by silk hand- 
kerchiefs, with adhesive paper on the ends. 
The lights were then extinguished, so that the 
only light came through a ground-glass panel 
in the door from a small gas-jet some distance 
off. The illumination was so faint that I, 
sitting in the circle four or five feet from the 
medium, could just make out against the back- 
ground of the door the dark outline of his head, 
which, apparently, did not move throughout the 
experiment. I could see no gleam of white 
from the cards which lay on the table. After a 
quarter of an hour the lights were turned up, 
and two small oil-paintings, one circular, about 
the size of a penny, the other oval and slightly 
larger, were found on the two cards. The 
colours were still moist and the fragments in 
my pocket fitted the torn corners of the cards. 
The two pictures, which lie before me as I 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 43 

write, represent respectively a small upland 

stream dashing over rocks, and a mountain 

lake with its shores bathed in a sunset glow. 

The paintings, though obviously executed with 

some haste, were hardly such as one can imagine 

to have been done in such a short interval and 

in almost complete darkness. For many 

years I was quite at a loss to understand how the 

feat could have been accomplished by normal 

means. The explanation, which I have no 

doubt to be correct, is an extremely simple one. 

Duguid, it has been seen, would not suffer 

profane hands to touch the cards ; and, when 

he had torn off the corner of a card, he no 

doubt dropped into the sitters hand, not the 

piece torn from the blank card on the table, 

but a piece previously torn from a card on which 

a picture had already been painted. 

Spirit painting has also been produced by other 

mediums. A fairly recent case (1905) is quoted 

by the Ref. Prof. Henslow {Proofs of the Truths of 

Spiritualism, pp. 172-4, Kegan Paul). The account 

is given by Dr. T. d'Aute Hooper who was the 

automatist. 

Near the end of June she (a control named 
" Violetta," purporting to be the daughter of a 
nobleman of feudal times) very much astonished 
me by requesting me to procure some painting 
materials as she " wanted to paint a picture." 
I remonstrated with her and told her I could 
not paint and never had painted anything ; 
but she insisted that I was to do so. 

At our next seance, when she controlled her 



44 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

medium, the first words she uttered were : 
" So, ' College* (the nickname she gave to Dr. 
Hooper), you have not done as I asked you," 
to which I replied " It was useless as I could 
not paint." There was a good deal of argu- 
ment. For the sake of peace I promised when 
next in town to procure some paints and card- 
board. 

I bought a few tubes of colour and a sheet of 
cardboard and some brushes. At our next 
seance she greeted me with the words. " So, 
College, you've kept your promise." To 
which I replied " Yes, but I could not see the 
utility of so doing." She gave me directions 
that I was to prepare the colours, etc., upon a 
certain evening, and that I would paint a picture. 
I followed the advice more for the sake of peace 
than anything; and the picture was the outcome. 
Of course it is full of faults, but I was smug 
enough to think it was good for a first attempt. 

Now for the sequel. When the picture was 
dry I locked it away where no one could see it, 
and told Mrs. Hooper not to mention it to any- 
one but await what would happen at our next 
seance. 

We met as usual, when Violetta controlled 
her medium, she remarked : " So, College, 
most wonderful of artists, you have done my 
picture." I replied, " what picture ? " To 
which she said, " Why ! the picture of our 
moated castle with the Peacock, Raven, Lion, 
Pecky and Violet." I replied, " You are correct 
except on one point, that Pecky was not in the 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 45 

picture. She gave a hearty laugh and asked, 
" What is pecking the violets ? " I replied, 
" A hen." " Well, College," she replied, 
" that is ' Pecky.' " 

I was very much surprised to think that the 

picture should be described through the lips of a 

medium who had never seen it. 

A short reference must be made to " Slate Writing " 

which was for some little time held to be a genuine 

manifestation of extra-terrene intelligence. Slade 

and Eglinton were its most famous professors. Mr. 

C. C. Massey gave the following account of one of 

the latter's performances (Proc. S.P.R. Vol. IV., 

p. 77), corroborated by the Hon. Roden Noel, 

who was also present at the sitting. 

" Mr. Eglinton now laid one of two equi-sized 
slates (lOf inches by 7|) flat upon the other, the 
usual scrap of pencil being enclosed. Both slates 
were then, as I carefully assured myself, perfectly 
clean on both surfaces. He then forthwith, and 
without any previous dealing with them, presented 
one end of the two slates, held together by himself 
at the other end, for me to hold with my left hand, 
on which he placed his own right. I clasped the 
slates, my thumb on the frame of the one (I inch), 
and three of my fingers, reaching about four inches, 
forcing up the lower slate against the upper one. 
We did not hold the slates underneath the table, 
but at the other side a little below the level. Mr. 
Noel was thus able to observe the position. Mr. 
Eglinton held the slates firmly together at his end, 
as I can assert, because I particularly observed that 
there was no gap at his end. I also noticed his thumb 



46 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

on the top of the slates, and can say that it rested 
quite quietly throughout the writing, which we 
heard almost immediately, and continuously, except 
when Mr. Eglinton once raised his hand from mine, 
when the sound ceased till contact was resumed. 

" We heard the sound of writing distinctly, yet 
it was not, I think quite so loudly audible as I re- 
member with Slade. When the three raps came, 
denoting that the i message ' was finished, Eglinton 
simply removed his hand from the slates, leaving 
them in my left hand, also quitting contact of his 
other hand with my left. I took off the upper 
slate, and we saw that the inner surface of one of 
them was covered with writing, 20 lines (118 words), 
from end to end written from the medium, and one 
line along the side by the frame, and ' good-bye ' 
on the other side. The writing was in straight 
lines across the slate, all the lines slanting from left 
to right.' ' 

For some little time slate writing was an inexplic- 
able puzzle to even shrewd observers. 

The riddle was, however, solved by an amateur 
conjurer, Mr. S. J. Davey. Mr. Davey had him- 
self been at first much impressed by Eglinton's 
performances. Sustained observation, led him, 
however, to suspect trickery and he set himself to 
produce, by simple conjuring, effects similar to those 
of Eglinton and Slade. After considerable practice 
he succeeded in equalling and even surpassing their 
performances. Davey, indeed, worked under more 
difficult conditions than the alleged mediums, since 
his observers were already aware that they were to 
witness mere conjuring. 






PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 47 

The account of Davey's sitting with Mr. A. Pod- 
more may be quoted. 

Mr. A. Podmore wrote in 1886 (Proc. S.P.R., 
Vol. IV., p. 416) :— 

" A few weeks ago Mr. D. gave me a seance, 
and, to the best of my recollection, the following 
was the result. Mr. D. gave me an ordinary 
school slate, which I held at one end, he at the 
other, with our left hands, he then produced 
a double slate, hinged and locked. Without 
removing my left hand, I unlocked the slate 
and at Mr. D.'s direction placed three small 
pieces of chalk — red, green and grey — inside. I 
then relocked the slate, placed the key in my 
pocket, and the slate on the table in such a 
position that I could easily watch both the slate 
in my left hand and the other on the table. After 
some few minutes, during which, to the best 
of my belief, I was attentively regarding both 
slates, Mr. D. whisked the first away, and showed 
me on the reverse a message written to myself. 
Almost immediately afterwards he asked me 
to unlock the second slate, and on doing so I 
found to my intense astonishment another 
message written on both the insides of the slates, 
the lines in alternate colours and the chalks 
apparently much worn by usage. 

" My brother tells me that there was an 

interval of some two or three minutes, during 

which my attention was called away, but I 

can only believe it on his word." 

Mr. F. Podmore remarks on the above (loc. n't. 

Vol. II., pp. 217-8). 



48 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

" Mr. Davey allowed me to see exactly what was 
done, and this is what I saw. The ' almost 
immediately ' in the above account covered 
an interval of some minutes. During this 
interval, and indeed, throughout the seance, 
Davey kept up a constant stream of chatter, 
on matters more or less germane to the business 
in hand. Mr. A. Podmore, absorbed by the 
conjurer's patter, fixed his eyes on Davey's 
face, and the latter took advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to remove the locked slate under cover 
of a duster from under my brother's nose, to 
the far end of the room, and there exchange it 
for a similar slate, with a previously prepared 
message, which was then placed, by means of 
the same manoeuvre with the duster, in the 
position originally occupied by the first slate. 
Then, and only then, the stream of talk slackened, 
and Mr. A. Podmore's attention became concen- 
trated upon the slate, from which the sound of 
spirit writing was now heard to proceed. To 
me the most surprising thing in the whole 
episode was Mr. A. Podmore's incredulity when 
told that his attention had been diverted from 
the slate for an appreciable period. u 
Dr. Hereward Carrington, another amateur con- 
jurer with great experience of the " tricks of the 
trade " of professional " physical " mediums, de- 
scribes in his instructive book The Physical Phenomena 
of Spiritualism, fradulent and genuine, another method 
by which writing is produced between a pair of slates 
which after being carefully cleaned are screwed 
and glued together and sealed by the sitter. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 49 

In this case there is no substitution of a prepared 
pair of slates with the " spirit writing " already 
upon them. The slates are held under the seance 
table as usual and after a minute or so they are handed 
to the sitter who, after breaking the seals and taking 
the slates apart, finds a message written on the inner 
face of one of them. 

I The explanation given by Mr. Carrington is that 
the small piece of chalk, which is placed between the 
slates before they are fixed together, for the use of 
the ostensible spirit writer, is not ordinary chalk 
at all but a compound of powdered chalk, glue and 
iron filings. When the slates are placed under the 
table the medium secretly extracts a magnet from 
his sleeve and traces a few words on the outside of 
the slate. The iron filings in the lump of chalk 
cause it to follow the movements of the magnet 
and writing on the inside of the slate is the 
result. 

A whole volume could be filled with descriptions 
of earlier manifestations of physical phenomena 
and would form entertaining reading. This book, 
however, is concerned with the strictly practical 
aspect of the subject. Hence after noting the general 
nature and developments of these phenomena, no 
more attention need be devoted to them, not because 
the fact that some professional mediums were ex- 
posed, necessarily proves that all such phenomena 
were fraudulent, but simply because the earlier 
evidence is quite inadequate to enable any reasoned 
decision to be arrived at. As Podmore has shown 
the observers of earlier phenomena had little concep- 
tion of the need for accurate recording or really 

E 



50 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

scientific investigation. The documentary evidence 
is poor and conflicting. 

The only possible policy for the practical man is 
simply to say that the evidence for these earlier 
phenomena is inadequate to enable any decision 
to be arrived at. 

If we had no more evidence than that available 
in support of the earlier physical phenomena, there 
can be no doubt that any impartial person would be 
justified in saying that these phenomena were not 
worthy of serious consideration. 

We have, however, a few cases where these phe- 
nomena have been investigated by men of science 
and others of authority, where proper experimental 
methods have been employed, and where immediate 
and careful records have been made of all occurrences, 
so that the effects of the unreliability of human 
memory are, as far as possible, avoided. 

Although in order of date Home is amongst the 
earlier exhibitors of " physical " phenomena, 
since he commenced operation in England in 1855, 
yet the fact that his performances were investigated 
and vouched for by many eminent men, who placed 
their attestation on record in writing, does not 
permit us to dismiss Home's manifestations in the 
same way as those which we have just been 
considering. 

The most important evidence, in view of the high 
scientific standing of the witness, was that furnished 
by Sir Wm. Crookes in his book Researches in the 
Phenomena of Spiritualism, 1874, and in Proc. S.P.R., 
Vol. VI., pp. 98-127. We have also written testi- 
mony from the Earl of Dunraven (then Viscount 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 51 

Adare) in his Experiences in Spiritualism ; Dr. J. G. 
Wilkinson, Evenings with Mr. Home and the Spirits, 
1855; Sergt. Cox in The Mechanism of Man, 1876, 
and other documentary evidence in the periodical 
literature of the time and in the Journal of the S.P.R., 
July, 1889, and May, 1890. 

In Sir Wm. Crookes' experiments the attempt 
was undoubtedly made adequately to control and 
observe all the movements of the medium, and, in 
addition, apparatus was employed for measuring 
the weight, etc., of the medium during manifesta- 
tions, somewhat similar though less complete than 
that used by Dr. Crawford in his recent experiments 
described below. 

It is quite impossible, within the confines of the 
present book, to give an example of each kind of 
manifestation produced by Home. His reper- 
toire vastly exceeded both in quality and quantity 
that of his predecessors, and he introduced certain 
phenomena hitherto apparently unknown. 

Sir Wm. Crookes' account of a remarkable mani- 
festation which occurred at a sitting on June 21st, 
1871, may be quoted : — 

" Just in front of Mr. Home and on the 
table was a thin wooden lath 23J inches long, 
1| inches wide and f inch thick, covered with 
white paper. It was plainly visible to us all and 
was one foot from the edge of the table. 
Presently the end of the lath, pointing towards 
Mr. Walter Crookes, rose up in the air to the 
height of about ten inches. The other end 
then rose up to a height of about five inches, 
and the lath then floated about for more than 



52 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

a minute in this position suspended in the 
air, with no visible means of support. It 
moved sideways and waved gently up and down, 
just like a piece of wood on the top of small 
waves of the sea. The lower end then gently 
sank till it touched the table and the other end 
followed. 

Whilst we were speaking about this wonder- 
ful exhibition of force, the lath began to move 
again, and, rising up as it did at first, it waved 
about in a somewhat similar manner. The 
startling novelty of the movement having now 
worn off, we were all enabled to follow its 
motions with more accuracy. Mr. Home 
was sitting away from the table at least three 
feet from the lath all this time ; he was appar- 
ently quite motionless, and his hands were 
tightly grasped, his right by Mrs. Walter 
Crookes and his left by Mrs. William Crookes. 
Any movement by his feet was impossible 
as, owing to the large cage being under the 
table his legs were not able to be put beneath 
but were visible to those on each side of him. 
All the others had hold of hands." 
Mr. Podmore (loc. cit. p. 243) does not consider 
it necessary to look for any more supernormal 
explanation than a loop of black thread passed over 
the frame of the hanging lamp over the table attached 
at the one end to the centre of the lath and at the 
other to the medium's knees. He points out that, 
since all the sitters hands were joined, there was no 
risk of an inquisitive hand being passed over the 
lath whereby the thread would be detected. He 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 53 

also states that in a subdued light and against a dark 
background a fine black thread is invisible. 

The most familiar example of Home's manifesta- 
tions is that which took place at 5 Buckingham Gate, 
on December 16th, 1868, in the presence of the then 
Earls of Crawford and Dunraven and Captain 
Wynne. This has been often quoted and was a 
stock subject for arguments, especially with the 
upholders of the hallucination theory as an explana- 
tion of the seemingly inexplicable. Briefly, the 
alleged levitation consisted in Home leaving one 
room by the window floating through the air and 
entering horizontally into the adjoining room through 
the window, the windows being on the fifth 
floor of the building. For an analysis of this 
phenomenon the reader must again be referred to the 
indispensible Mr. Podmore (loc. cit. Vol. II., pp. 
257-8) who finds the explanation both in illusion 
and malobservation. 

Home's elongations were also famous. One, 
described by Lord Lindsay in a paper before the 
Dialectical Society July 6th, 1869, may be quoted 
as typical : — 

" On another occasion I saw Mr. Home in 
a trance, elongated eleven inches. I measured 
him standing up against the wall, and marked 
the place ; not being satisfied with that, I put 
him in the middle of the room and placed a 
candle in front of him, so as to throw a shadow 
on the wall, which I also marked. When he 
awoke I measured him again in his natural 
size, both directly and by the shadow, and the 
results were equal. I can swear that he was not 



54 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

off the ground or standing on tiptoe, as I had 
full view of his feet, and moreover, a gentleman 
present had one of his feet placed over Home's 
insteps, one hand on his shoulder, and the 
other on his side where the false ribs come near 
the hip-bone. " 
Later, in answer to questions, Lord Lindsay supple- 
mented his evidence as follows : — 

" The top of the hip-bone and the short 
ribs separate. In Home they were unusually 
close together. There was no separation of 
the vertebrae of the spine ; nor were the elonga- 
tions at all like those resulting from expanding 
the chest with air ; the shoulders did not move. 
Home looked as if he was pulled up by the 
neck ; the muscles seemed in a state of tension. 
He stood firmly upright in the middle of the 
room, and before the elongation commenced 
I placed my foot on his instep. I will swear 
he never moved his heels from the ground. 
When Home was elongated against the wall, 
Lord Adare placed his foot on Home's instep, 
and I marked the place on the wall. I once 
saw him elongated horizontally on the ground ; 
Lord Adare was present. Home seemed to 
grow at both ends, and pushed myself and 
Adare away." 
Perhaps the most striking and certainly not the 
worst authenticated of Home's phenomena was the 
power which he exhibited of handling red-hot 
coals and other hot articles, and even of conferring 
this power to others. 

A well-known solicitor, Mr. W M. Wilkinson, 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 55 

testified to one of Home's remarkable manifestations 
of immunity from fire (Barrett : On the Threshold 
of the Unseen , p. 76). 

" 1 saw Mr. Home take out of our drawing-room 
fire a red-hot coal a little less in size than a cricket 
ball and carry it up and down the room. He said 
to Lord Adare (Earl Dunraven) — who was present 
— " will you take it from me ? It will not hurt 
you.'' Lord Adare took it and held it in his hand 
for about half a minute. Before he threw it back 
into the fire I put my hand close to it and felt the 
heat like that of a live coal." 

On another occasion Home placed a glowing 
coal on the head of the well-known art critic, Mr. 
Samuel Carter Hall. 

This gentleman had long and very thick white 
hair and it is stated that the hair was drawn up in a 
pyramid over the bright red mass. In this case 
at any rate the explanation that the coal was only 
alight in one portion (a coal in this condition may 
be red-hot at one end and moderately cool at the other) 
does not apply. That there really was a coal of 
some sort there, seems to be proved by the fact 
that when Mr. Hall brushed his hair at night he 
found in it a quantity of cinder dust. 

On several other occasions Home handed to various 
reputable witnesses red-hot coals which they held 
without hurt. 

Podmore, to whom one instinctively, and generally 
profitably, turns for a natural explanation of physical 
phenomena, is hardly satisfying here. He refers 
to the obvious fact that a partly burnt coal may be 
red-hot at one end and cool at the other. This 



56 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

might explain the carrying of coal on the hand but 
cannot explain the experiment with Mr. S. C. Hall 
whose hair, which was of remarkable thickness, must 
have surrounded the coal on all sides. 

Hallucination is difficult to accept as we need to 
assume a double illusion since a red-hot coal affects 
both the visual and tactile senses. 

If we agree with Podmore that we are entitled to 
assume that Home was a practised conjuror it is 
simplest to explain the occurrence by presuming 
that Home substituted a dead coal for a live coal a 
difficult piece of legerdemain but not impossible. 
Alternatively we can fall back on the convenient 
hypothesis of misreporting. 

As Count Solovovo says (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXL, 
p. 461) :— 

"How can we logically admit the strange 
mixture of fact and fancy if we adopt the illu- 
sion hypothesis ? Scores of people believing 
that they are handling hot coals when they are 
in fact touching something quite different 
or nothing at all. Scores of other people who 
believe themselves to be witnesses to the same 
fact. Persons becoming victims to this extra- 
ordinary illusion instantaneously and in suc- 
cession ? . . . To adopt such a theory seems 
to me to strain incredulity (should it not rather 
be called credulity the other way) to the utter- 
most." 
In regard to the manifestation of spirit hands, 
not by any means a performance exclusive to Home, 
Mr. Barr's account is at least startling : — 

" The hand, white as marble and not visibly 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 57 

attached to any arm, reached out to my hand 
and shook hands with me ; a hearty human 
shake. Then the hand sought to withdraw 
from mine. I would not let it. Then it 
pulled to get away with a good deal of strength. 
But I held it firmly, resolved to see what it 
was . . . When the hand found it could not 
get away it yielded itself up to me for my 
examination ; turned itself over and back, 
shut up its fingers and opened them, let me 
examine the finger-nails, the joints, the creases. 
It was a perfect human hand, but white as snow, 
and ended at the wrist. I was not satisfied 
with the sense of sight to prove this — I wanted 
the concurrent testimony of other senses ; 
and I swung my arm up and down where the 
arm belonging to this hand should have been 
. . . but no arm was there. Even then I was 
not satisfied. Turning this strange hand 
palm towards me, I pushed my right forefinger 
entirely through the palm till it came out an 
inch or more visibly from the back of the hand. 
In other words I pushed my finger clear through 
that mysterious hand. When I withdrew it, 
the place closed up, such as a piece of putty 
would close under such circumstances — leaving 
a visible mark or scar where the wound was, 
but not a hole. 

While I was still looking at it, the hand 

vanished quick as a lightning-flash. It was 

gone." 

The other great non-professional medium of the 

latter part of the last century was the Rev. Stainton 



58 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

Moses. He produced divers physical phenomena. 
Most of these were similar to those of Home and were 
also vouched for by many reputable witnesses. 

Examples thereof are perhaps hardly necessary, 
nor does space permit. Mr. Stainton Moses, 
moreover, is famous rather for his inspirational 
writings. 

As Mr. Moses was a man of more culture than 
Home, and, for many years a hard-working parish 
priest and thereafter a not unsuccessful master at 
University College School, he might, without any 
reflection on Home, be considered as the more 
inately trustworthy of the two. Yet for the present 
purpose there will, I think, be no great impropriety 
in grouping them together for the purpose of con- 
sidering the evidence for their phenomena. 

We have presented to us two gentlemen producing, 
for no mercenary object, an extensive series of 
phenomena, impossible according to our present 
known laws of nature but yet vouched for by a large 
number of most reputable witnesses. We must 
also give weight to the fact that there is no record 
of either Home or Moses having been detected 
in trickery. Home's seances were so numerous 
and his sitters drawn from so wide a circle that 
(making every allowance for the fact that his non- 
professional position gave him consideration which 
would not be accorded to a professional practitioner) 
it is difficult to believe that if there had been trickery 
it would not have been detected, and if detected 
published abroad. On the other hand it must be 
remembered that, as the host or guest, and not the 
servant, of his sitters, he was able to a very great 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 59 

extent to impose his own conditions and, by the 
simple expedient of doing nothing, when a too critical 
observer was among the sitters, or the light or 
environment was unfavourable, might have been 
able to restrict his more difficult performances to 
times and places where detection of any artifices 
was impossible. 

It must also be remembered that in those earlier 
days of psychic research even such eminent scientists 
as Sir W. Crookes were novices at the business. It is 
certain that Home's phenomena were never investi- 
gated in anything like the detail and with the care 
that, for example those of Eusapia Palladino were 
by the S.P.R. commission at Naples in 1908 (Proc. 
S.P.R., Vol. XXIII., pp. 309-569), or by M. Courtier 
and his colleagues (Bulletin de Vlnstitut General 
Psychologique, Nos. 5 and 6, 1908). 

Finally, it may be well to repeat that the hypo- 
thesis of illusion cannot possibly cover all the facts 
on record. 

Illusion is a good enough theory when the point 
at issue is the appearance of some extra-terrene 
phenomena. When, however, it is called in to 
explain the movement of some ordinary objective 
thing it breaks down. A sitter may see a spirit 
hand move a vase of flowers across a room. He 
may be hallucinated as to the hand, but he cannot 
be hallucinated as to movement having taken place, 
when he finds the vase in a different position to that 
it originally occupied. 

The only verdict for the practical man on the 
Home and Moses phenomena standing by them- 
selves, must be not-proven. 



60 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

But as will shortly be shown, confirmation of some 
of the simpler manifestations seems to be now 
available by evidence of a quality which it is difficult 
to refute. It is, therefore, not impossible that we 
may shortly have to reconsider our verdict on the 
manifestations of Home and Moses. 

I think it may fairly be said that up to the present 
date (August, 1919) there have been only three 
" physical " mediums whose performances have 
been investigated with real care and accuracy, namely, 
an American lady Mrs. Williams, Eusapia Palladino 
and Miss Kathleen Goliger and her circle at Belfast. 

The manifestations of Mrs. Williams, the wife 
of a Doctor and in no way financially or sentimentally 
interested in obtaining results, were personally 
investigated with great care by Miss Johnson assisted 
by Doctor Gower (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXL, pp. 
94-135). The phenomena obtained were not 
numerous, but the evidence is clear that raps and 
movements and levitations of a table were obtained 
in good light, when the positions of the sitters were 
such that these phenomena could not have been 
produced by hands, feet, or any other normal means. 

The manifestations were, however, so very few 
that they only make a small contribution to the 
evidence. That contribution is, however, unim- 
peachable as, a perusal of Miss Johnson's paper will 
show. 

The name of Eusapia Palladino has become as 
wearisome to the student of psychic research as that 
of Sally Beauchamp to the psychologist. Never- 
theless it cannot be omitted even from the most 
superficial survey of the evidence for " physical " 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 61 

phenomena. There is certainly no other " physical M 
medium whose performances have been studied 
with so much detail and by so many competent 
observers, over so long a period of time. 

Eusapia was first investigated in 1891 by the 
eminent criminologist, Prof. Lombroso, who pub- 
lished his opinion of the genuine nature of the 
phenomena (Annales des Sciences Psychiques, 1891 — 2). 
The interest evoked by Lombroso's pronouncement 
caused a group of Scientists to undertake further 
experiments at Milan in 1892 when seventeen sittings 
in all were held. Among the group of investigators 
were Prof. Richet, Professor of Physiology in Paris, 
Prof. Schiaparelli, Director of the Milan Observatory, 
Dr. Carl du Prel, of Munich, and several well-known 
physicists {vide Annales des Sciences Psychiques 1893, 
pp. 39-64). The phenomena were of the kind 
familiar in Eusapia's seances, table levitations, move- 
ments of objects, spirit hands, etc., many of the 
manifestations being obtained in good light. In 
regard to these, the investigators came to the general 
conclusion that they could not have been produced 
by trickery. 

The first investigation in which any English 
scientists took part was in 1894 at Prof. Richet's 
residence on the He Rouband. Sir O. Lodge, 
Mr. Myers, Prof, and Mrs. Sidgwick were the 
English representatives. For most of the sittings 
Sir O. Lodge was in general charge of the seance room 
and arranged the experiments. He and Mr. Myers 
were convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena, 
while Prof, and Mrs. Sidgwick supported this view 
with certain important reservations. Sir O. Lodge's 



62 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

full report (Proc. S.P.R., Vo. VI.), gave rise to some 
controversy and criticism as to the control of the 
hands and feet of the medium, notably from 
Dr. Hodgson (Journal S.P.R., Vol. VII., pp. 36-55). 

With a view to arriving at a definite conclusion, 
Eusapia was brought to Cambridge where twenty-one 
sittings were held in 1895. At the end of the sittings 
the investigators came to the unanimous conclusion 
that fraud had been used in many cases and that 
there was no adequate reason for concluding in favour 
of any supernormal agency having been at work 
during the course of the sittings (Journal S.P.R., 
Vol. VII., pp. 131-5 and 148-159). 

In spite of the above negative result Continental 
investigators were not prepared to accept the result 
of the Cambridge sittings as conclusive. Further 
investigations were numerous, and several scientists 
of international reputation such as M. Camille 
Flammarion and Prof. Enrico Morselli stated that 
after making every possible allowance for fraud 
(conscious or unconscious), there was still a sub- 
stantial residuum of phenomena which could not 
have been effected by ordinary physical and mechanical 
means. Special attention must, however, be given 
to the experiments undertaken by M. Courtier 
which extended over three years and were witnessed 
by many distinguished scientists such as Prof, and 
Madame Curie, M. d'Arsonval, M. Henri Bergson 
and others. A copious report was given by M. 
Courtier (Bulletin de VInstitut Psychologique, Nos. 
5 and 6, 1908). 

The outstanding merit of these experiments is 
that they prove quite definitely and finally, that the 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 63 

levitations, etc., were actual objective phenomena 
and not, as is so often said, with more haste than 
knowledge, mere illusions. For example each leg 
of the table to be levitated was fitted with an electric 
contact which only operated when the leg left the 
ground. Each contact closed a circuit to an in- - 
dicating stylus which made a mark on a revolving 
drum (the whole arrangement was similar to the 
familiar laboratory apparatus used for chrono- 
graphic measurements). When all four indicators 
simultaneously marked the drum it was positive 
proof that the whole table had actually left the floor. 

Automatic records of the muscular effort exerted 
by the medium, variations in her weight, etc., were 
also made. Space does not permit of a description 
of the elaborate apparatus employed. It is important 
to note that the registering apparatus was not located 
in the seance room but in the room adjoining, the 
electric leads and pneumatic tubes operating the 
registering apparatus, being led through holes in the 
intervening wall. This eliminates the possibility, 
which has been often assumed, that the medium 
surreptitiously, operates the indicating apparatus. 

As far, therefore, as the objectivity of levitation, 
etc., is concerned M. Courtier's experiments give a 
definite affirmative decision. 

The degree of lighting and the completeness of the 
supervision of the mediums limbs varied. Sufficient 
experiments, however, were made in adequate light 
and with full control and observation of the medium's 
movements, to enable the distinguished investi- 
gators to state that certain of the phenomena could 
not have been produced by normal means. 



64 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

As previously stated the great value of M. Courtier's 
experiments was that he definitely proved the ob- 
jectivity of the movements in question. Although 
the supervision of the medium's movements was in 
many cases adequate yet this important point is not 
perhaps, dealt with in sufficient detail to carry con- 
viction to the reader. On this point we have strong 
affirmative evidence in the records of the investiga- 
tions of the S.P.R. commission at Naples in Nov- 
ember and December, 1908. The Commissioners 
were Messrs. Fielding, Baggalay and Carrington. 
All of whom had had many years experience in the 
investigation of " physical " phenomena, while the 
last two gentlemen were skilful amateur conjurors. 
Mr. Carrington, in particular, had devoted many 
years to the exposure, and the repetition, by mere 
legerdemain, of the tricks of American " physical Y 
mediums. It is also most important to note that all 
three commissioners had, before the Naples in- 
vestigations, definitely expressed their opinion that 
they had never seen any " physical " phenomena 
which were not to be accounted for by fraud (con- 
scious or unconscious). 

The personnel of the Commission was, therefore, 
from the sceptical point of view, unimpeachable, 
and removes the objection so often made that fraudu- 
lent physical mediums can deceive eminent scientists, 
but not skilled prestidigitators. 

The Commission directed their attention specially 
to providing adequate and continuous control of the 
medium's person. Accurately to record this control, 
all actions and observations in the seance room were 
noted by a stenographer who was present at all the 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 65 

sittings. The complete record will be found in the 
Proc. S.P.R., Vo. XXIII. , pp. 306-569. The 
Commissioners introduction may well be quoted : — 
"We decided to furnish as complete a record 
as possible of the conduct of our seances, 
and while it is true that a report consisting, 
mainly, as does the present of mere details 
of hand-holding, foot-holding and conditions 
of light, is intolerably wearisome and unread- 
able, a report of this kind is necessary for those 
who are prepared to take the trouble of following, 
at least a part of it, with attention, if anything 
more than the mere ipse dixit of an observer 
as to the adequacy of the control is to be pro- 
vided/' 
A perusal of the detailed report of the eleven 
sittings which covers some 110 large octavo pages, 
largely transcribed from the original shorthand 
notes, must carry conviction as to its inherent 
accuracy. The fact that the observations of the 
sitters were taken down as they were spoken, eliminates 
the possibility of misreporting, which is always 
present when records are made some little time 
after the events, thus leaving loopholes for in- 
accurate recollection. The report, if it be wearisome 
as its authors describe it, is so from its length alone 
and not from its manner or matter. It cannot 
but prove interesting to the serious reader. 

It is quite clear, from the report and from the dia- 
grams which accompany it, that certain phenomena 
could not possibly have been effected by normal 
means. Thus, for example, in full light (a sixteen 
candle power Electric Lamp) there occurred, in 



66 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

response to gestures by the medium, a series of 
raps on the further side of the room a distance of 
over six feet from where she was seated. Also 
objects were moved which were quite out of the reach 
of the medium. 

The phenomena concerning which the commis- 
sioners expressed a definite opinion were mostly 
of the familiar sort, raps, blows, levitations, move- 
ments of articles, etc. Some other phenomena 
" spirit " lights, hands, etc., were produced but 
they are not relied upon, as the illumination of the 
seance room was very low r when they were produced. 
To give a full report of even one sitting would 
demand far more space than is here available. While 
to attempt an abridgement thereof is likely, indeed 
certain, to give a distorted view. The reader is, 
therefore, referred to the original report which is, 
like all the other proceedings of the S.P.R., available 
to the public. 

Each of the commissioners submitted a separate 
report. These reports agree in substance and the 
result is well summed up in Mr. Fielding's final 
note (loc. cit. p. 568) : — 

" My colleagues, having come to the deliberate 
opinion that a large proportion of the manifesta- 
tions of which we were the witnesses in Naples, 
were clearly beyond the possibilities of any 
conceivable form of conjuring, entertain no 
difficulty in saying so in precise terms and, 
so far as my own position as a layman (i.e., 
not a conjuror) entitles me to it, I associate 
myself entirely with their conclusions." 
Subsequently Eusapia Palladino gave a number of 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 67 

sittings in America the result of which was dis- 
tinctly unfavourable, the medium being detected 
in trickery on several occasions (Journal American 
S.P.R., Aug., 1910). Thereafter another series 
of sittings were held at Naples in November and 
December, 1910. The investigators being the Count 
and Countess Solovovo, Mr. Fielding and Mr. 
Marriott (vide Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXV., pp. 57-69). 
These sittings were only five in number and were 
attended with no manifestations which could definitely 
be considered as evidential. The sitters were 
unanimous that with one possible exception the 
whole of the phenomena was fraudulent. 

It should be noted that Mr. Baggalay who was 
one of the 1908 Commission lays particular stress 
on the fact that these latter sittings were materially 
different to those held in 1908. He says (loc. sit. 
p. 69):- 

" It was the phenomena under . . . test 

conditions, which we obtained at our seances 

in December, 1908, that greatly impressed me 

and I laid particular stress on them (and gave 

some examples) in my final note in the Report 

of our Naples sittings. So far I have not met 

with any satisfactory explanation of how Eusapia 

could have produced these phenomena by 

normal means. It is certain that no accomplice 

was present and we had satisfied ourselves by 

examination that no apparatus was being used." 

Possibly the reader may take the objection that 

because Eusapia had, during her numerous tests, 

been several times detected in fraudulent practices, 

therefore all records of her phenomena are evidentially 



68 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

valueless. Such an objection is hardly logical. 
Because a person has on some occasions been detected 
in lying we do not conclude that every statement 
he makes must necessarily be untrue, even if in- 
dependently verified. 

We can, indeed, place no reliance whatever on 
Eusapia's bona fides (whether the deception was 
conscious or unconscious does not affect the question). 
But we are not, on the ground of the medium's 
unreliability, to refuse to accept phenomena which, 
on reputable testimony, could not possibly have 
been effected by normal means. To take a simple 
analogy. We are rightly sceptical of marvellous 
rounds of golf played by a solitary golfer of exaggera- 
tive tendencies, but we do not refuse to believe the 
evidence of his card signed by his partner in a medal 
round, however much above the player's normal 
form it may be. 

Of course it would be better if we could entirely 
discard all evidence from sources which are in the 
slightest degree tainted. But as the human beings 
who can manifest physical phenomena are so exceed- 
ingly rare we cannot afford to do this. Our eggs of 
evidence are very few and not all fresh, most are like 
the Curate's egg " excellent in parts " only. Owing 
to scarcity we cannot throw away the tainted ones 
but must use such parts as are passable in our 
omelette. 

With these remarks I think we can leave the un- 
pleasant but necessary proximity of Eusapia (what 
must not the S.P.R. commissioners have suffered 
from that proximity ?) and pass on to the far more 
pleasing atmosphere of the Belfast circle. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 69 

The manifestations of the Belfast circle have been 
examined with great care and accuracy by Prof. 
W. J. Crawford, D.Sc, of Queen's University and 
The Technical Institute, Belfast. His results are 
described in his book The Reality of Psychic Pheno- 
mena (John Watkins, 1919), which is a cold practical 
investigation by a mechanical engineer, who has 
made careful observations and quantitative measure- 
ments of the forces and reactions exhibited in the 
levitation of articles, and has propounded a theory 
to account for the phenomena which, though neces- 
sarily speculative, has the merit of consistence with 
the experimental results obtained. The outstanding 
importance of Dr. Crawford's work is such that an 
attempt must be made to give an abstract thereof, 
though the full weight of the evidence afforded by his 
lengthy series of experiments, eighty-seven in 
number, can only be appreciated by a perusal of 
the whole book, in which, it should be mentioned, 
that technicalities are few, and the whole matter so 
clearly and simply set forth as to be easily understood 
by the non-mechanical reader. 

The circle with which Dr. Crawford made his 
investigations consisted of a Mr. Goligher, his son, 
four daughters, and a son-in-law. All the members 
appear to have had some pyschic power, but this is 
possessed far more strongly, than in the case of the 
rest of the family, by Miss Kathleen Goligher, a young 
lady twenty-one years of age. Dr. Crawford gives, 
(loc. cit., pp. 10-16) a number of excellent reasons 
why the hypothesis of fraud is untenable. Some of 
the reasons, such as the great respectability of the 
family, and Dr. Crawford's personal knowledge of 



70 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

them for some years, the fact that they look upon the 
sittings as religious observances, the absence of any 
financial or social inducement to give fraudulent 
manifestations, will not carry conviction to the sceptic, 
though in testimony on any ordinary subject they 
would be considered adequate. It can hardly be 
necessary to discuss the bona fides of Dr. Crawford 
himself, or of the others who assisted him as observers 
from time to time, such as Sir Wm. Barrett or 
Mr. Whatley Smith {vide Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXX, 
pp, 306-333). 

Far stronger evidence lies in the following facts : — 
None of these manifestations were carried on in the 
dark. The source of light was an ordinary gas 
flame in a red glass lantern. The visibility was 
quite sufficient to enable the movements of the sitters 
and the positions of their hands to be readily seen. 
Furthermore, Dr. Crawford was at times assisted 
by one or even two independent observers. The 
members of the family constituting the circle sat 
at some distance from the table, sufficient space 
being, indeed, left to enable the observer to walk 
between the sitters and the table. Finally, and I 
think conclusively, the magnitude of the forces in 
some experiments was such that the sitters could 
not possibly have exerted them even if they had 
deliberately tried to do so. 

In this latter connection Dr. Crawford (loc. cit.> 
pp. 14-15) says : — 

"The magnitude of the actions applied to the 
table must be seen to be believed. Often a 
force approximating to a hundredweight is 
exerted. A visitor is invited to enter the circle, 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 71 

as already explained, to lay hold of the table, 
and to try to prevent its motion. I have never 
yet seen this successfully accomplished. Now, 
the only way such movements could be given 
normally to the table is by the feet of the medium, 
for all hands and bodies of sitters and medium 
are quite plainly seen, and the only part that may 
be in shadow is near the feet of the medium. It 
can be proved conclusively by direct experiment 
that even if the medium were to lie back in 
her chair, spread her feet so that they were 
under the surface of the table, eighteen inches 
or more away, and endeavour to levitate it or 
move it about, such motion of her body would be 
immediately detected, and that a man pressing 
immediately over the table could prevent even 
the slightest motion by a ridiculously small 
effort, whereas, as already mentioned, the strong- 
est man cannot in reality do so The leverage 
from the medium's feet to her body is so great 
that a very small force only is required to 
prevent motion. " 
It will be observed, therefore, that the conditions 
are totally different to those of most seances, when 
the circle sits close to the table in darkness or a 
very dim light so that the movements of the knees 
or feet of the medium cannot be properly 
observed. 

Thus, for example, in the experiment given on 
p. 22, a small stool weighing 21bs. 12oz., and having 
a rectangular top 12J by 13| inches was placed in 
the centre of the circle of sitters which was 5 feet 
diameter. The medium herself was seated on a 



72 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

weighing-machine, the nearest part of the table 
being 3 feet distant from her knees. There were 
two observers besides Dr. Crawford. Under these 
conditions the table was, at the latter's request, 
lifted steadily to a height of at least 4 feet from the 
ground, and retained there for some two minutes 
level with the heads of the sitters. 

It must surely be obvious, to the most sceptical, 
that the sitters could not possibly have carried out 
the levitation with their feet (their hands were all 
accounted for). If not convinced, I suggest that 
the objector and a few friends form a circle of 5 feet 
diameter around a small stool and see if, while sitting 
upright and motionless on their chairs, they can lift 
(let alone steadily lift) the stool with their feet to the 
height of their own heads. A circle of professional 
contortionists might make an attempt at it, but a 
circle of ordinary individuals would find it quite 
impossible, especially when, as in the case in question, 
four out of the seven sitters were ladies. 

Two other equally convincing, though more 
spectacular experiments, which have often been 
repeated are as follows : — 

Experiment No. 24. Table on floor upside down. 
Visitor invited to raise it. 

The ordinary seance-table, weight lOflbs. 
was used. It was placed on the floor upside 
down, and a muscular visitor to the circle was 
asked to catch hold of the legs and to raise it. 
He was unable to do so. I do not think I have 
seen anybody yet succeed in this attempt, and 
I have watched many try. The table seems to 
be glued to the floor. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 73 

Experiment No. 25. Movements of table with 
experimenter sitting on it. 

The table was standing on the floor. I sat 

upon it. The table was slid and jerked about the 

floor apparently with considerable ease, against 

obviously fairly large friction forces. I have 

seen many people other than myself sit upon 

the table and be thus moved about. A favourite 

experiment is to ask the visitor to sit steadily 

upon the table and to wait calmly what shall 

happen. In a short time, usually inside a 

minute, the table gently rises on two legs and 

slides him off to the floor. 

A number of experiments were also made to 

determine whether there was any reaction on the 

floor under the table when the latter was levitated. 

At first Dr. Crawford expected to find that the reaction 

of the floor would be equal to the weight of the 

table, as would, of course, be the case if it was 

supported in the air by any sort of pillar or strut. 

He finally used a small weighing-machine, whose 
platform could be adjusted to various heights above 
the floor level. The results obtained are very 
remarkable. At 1 inch from the floor there was no 
reaction whatever registered on the dial of the spring 
balance. At 3 inches the reading was only f lb. At 
5 inches it had enormously increased and was 26 lbs. 
increasing with height, but not regularly, to a maxi- 
mum of 38 lbs., when the platform was at 11 inches 
from the ground. The weight of the table itself was 
10 lbs. The maximum steady pressure was therefore 
more than 3| times the weight of the table. Space 
does not permit us to enter into Dr. Crawford's 



74 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

ingenious and logical explanation of the reason for 
this great difference. The point which I wish to 
emphasize, is that here again we have a considerable 
force exerted on the platform of a weighing-machine, 
in a position where that force could not possibly 
have been exerted by normal mechanical means. 
No one will, I think, have the hardihood to contend 
that the movements of a pointer on the dial of a 
weighing-machine, or spring balance, can be an 
illusion. 

The evidence for the objective nature of these 
phenomena and for their occurrence otherwise than 
by ordinary physical forces, is so strong, that in spite 
of our common experience that tables are not lifted, 
or spring balances compressed or extended, without 
the application of physical force, we are driven 
towards the conclusion that under certain rare 
conditions the ordinary laws of gravity are indeed 
inhibited. 

The only logical alternative attitude is to state that 
results of such wide importance, of such a revolu- 
tionary nature, cannot be accepted by the cautious 
enquirer on the results of one series of experiments 
however careful and accurate. It must, however, 
be pointed out that the experiments with Mrs. 
Williams and Eusapia Pallodino and, in some measure, 
the records of the results obtained with Home and 
Stainton Moses, though of very mixed value do yet, 
in their several degrees, contribute items to the total 
of evidence so that the cumulative effect is very strong. 

In asking for the application of the test of repetition 
ad libitum, the sceptic asks for an impossibility. It 
is very clear that persons capable of producin 



■ 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 75 

pronounced manifestations of psychic force are very 
few. Even rarer and more difficult must it be to 
find persons thus endowed, who are prepared to 
submit to the inconvenience and strain of lengthy 
tests without pecuniary recompense. The rarity 
of a phenomenon is not per se any evidence against 
its occurrence (vide p. 4 above). 

It may not be out of place to suggest to those who 
dismiss all " physical " phenomena as fraudulent, 
that this is hardly a logical action until they have 
examined, at any rate some portion, of the published 
records of the investigation of these phenomena. 

In this matter as in the case of the evidence for 
communication with the disembodied or even for 
telepathy, those who deny these things invariably 
seem to base their conclusions on the a priori grounds 
of their improbability. Such critics seem to be too 
impatient to study the very careful and lengthy 
published reports. Some even go so far as to say, 
that the " physical " phenomena are so trivial and 
useless in their objective manifestations, that they do 
not merit serious consideration. They forget that 
so trivial a thing as the fall of an apple led Newton 
to his great generalization and similarly if so trivial 
a thing as a common table can be lifted without 
normal physical means, the general truth of such 
movements as a fact is proved. A fact which may 
lead to a generalization hardly less profound and 
cogent than that of the Law of Gravity. 

To sum up, we are, I think ; justified in accepting 
two conclusions : 

(a) That the levitations, movements of articles, etc., 
are objective and not illusory. 



76 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

(b) That, in some cases, these phenomena are not 
due to ordinary physical causes but take place 
in contradiction to the present known laws of 
nature. 

Beyond the above acceptances the practical man 
cannot yet safely go. 

Dr. Crawford himself is satisfied that the pheno- 
mena are due to " operators " who " are the spirits 
of human beings which have passed into the Beyond." 
Certainly, his book gives a vivid impression of a real 
group of invisible beings who are sensibly and ration- 
ally co-operating with the experimenter, and who 
appear intelligently to understand his requests. In 
view, however, of present knowledge of the vast 
potentialities of the subliminal self of a developed 
sensitive, caution demands that we withhold for the 
present our acceptance of these disembodied intelli- 
gences. 

This is the more necessary since the possibilities 
of direct psycho-physical interaction have not yet 
been sufficiently explored. Although this hypo- 
thesis was considered and rejected by Prof. Lombroso, 
yet it can hardly be said that this rejection is final. 
The power of mind to influence matter without the 
intervention of muscle is not yet a proved impossibility, 
Until it is so we can hardly come to a final conclusion 
as to the existence of these extra-terrene operators. 

Since the above was written some evidence has been published by 
Dr. Hereward Carrington (Modern Psychical Phenomena, Cap. 10, 
Kegan Paul, 1919), summarizing the experiments of Drs. Matla and 
Zaalburg van Zelst of the Hague. These experiments seem to show 
that " psychic operators " can indeed affect very delicate apparatus 
directly without the intervention of a " sensitive. " This, if confirmed, 
will lead to conclusions of the most profound importance. 



CHAPTER IV 

MATERIALIZATION AND SPIRIT 
PHOTOGRAPHY 

Materialization is defined by a well-known 
spiritualist, Mr. Hewat McKenzie, in his interesting 
book Spirit Intercourse, as the creation of forms re- 
presenting in appearance the departed, which are 
used by the departed for the purpose of manifesting 
themselves on earth and obtaining recognition by 
their living friends. 

The material used for these creations is stated 
to be psycho-plastic matter, which is drawn from the 
body of a materializing medium and shaped by spirit 
operators into a more or less perfect reproduction 
of the normal earthly appearance of the spirit who is 
temporarily to inhabit and employ the psycho- 
plastic creation. Total darkness is essential for 
these phenomena as light has a rapidly disintegrating 
effect on the material. If conditions are favourable, 
and adequate time and care have been given by the 
" operators," the creations may last without collapsing 
for some little time. 

They are also said to have been photographed, 
though this is a little difficult to reconcile with the 
statement that the figures disintegrate in light. 
Presumably disintegration is not instantaneous, and, 
if a very rapid exposure is taken by flash-light, the 
figures will, so to speak, be caught before they have 
melted much. 



78 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

There are other different and less developed forms 
of these alleged phenomena. 

" Shell materialization " is used when time presses 
and the supply of matter is limited. Instead of a 
full form, a sort of mask or shell only is made, which 
would obviously be more economical in time and 
material. 

Fluidic materialization is of quite a different 
nature. The familiar ghost, through which one can 
walk, is an example of this phenomenon. 

There is also " psycho-plastic transfiguration/' 
in which the medium's face is used as a core and a 
psycho-plastic mask resembling the departed com- 
municator is moulded over it. This process furnishes 
the faithful with an adequate explanation for the fact 
that on several occasions an alleged spirit form has 
been grasped by a sitter and has been found to be 
none other than the medium himself. The spirit 
operators share with the unbelievers the blame for 
such occurrences. Thus we are told (loc. cit.> p. 62) 
" Sometimes spirit controls fail to inform the experi- 
menters that transfiguration is being given as a 
substitute for " full form materialization," thus 
causing great disappointment and annoyance, 
especially when an eager sceptic seizes the form of 
the medium and thinks he has unmasked a conscious 
fraud." 

Spirit photography may properly be considered in 
conjunction with materialization phenomena, since, 
according to Spiritualistic theories, a spirit photo- 
graph is caused by some form of psycho-plastic 
creation prepared by spirit operators which, although 
not necessarily of sufficient density to be perceived 



SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 79 

by normal sight, yet has sufficient consistence 
to impress a sensitive photographic plate. Many 
Spirit photographs are on record, both of those 
who have passed over, and also of written 
messages. The subject is fully dealt with from the 
Spiritualist point of view by the Rev. Prof. Henslow. 
{Proofs of the Truths of Spiritualism ^ Kegan Paul, 
1919). Numerous spirit messages or psychographs are 
therein reproduced. It is explained that such mes- 
sages are not written directly upon the photographic 
plate. The complete message is prepared by the 
" operators " on a " spirit tablet " which is then 
" precipitated " in its entirety on the plate. The 
latter need not be exposed in a camera but can be 
simply held between the hands of the medium. As 
described below, it is claimed that the psychograph 
can even be impressed on a selected plate in an 
unopened packet. Some of these psychographs are 
very remarkable examples of penmanship. Fig. 41, 
(loc. cit.)> is a reproduction of a message consisting 
of 1,700 words which was produced on a plate surface 
of only 5 inches by 4 inches. The method of its 
reproduction is stated to have been (loc. cit. y p. 209) 
as follows : — 

" Written by no mortal fingers, on a half 
photo plate, sealed up from all access to light, 
and held between the twelve hands of six 
Christian Spiritualists for thirty-nine seconds. 
Wednesday evening, March 9, 1910." 
The subject matter of this and the other psycho- 
graphs reproduced in Prof. Henslow's book has no 
evidential value. 

Although, during the last ten years or so a number of 



80 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

alleged materializing mediums have apparently been 
known in spiritualistic circles, it is significant that 
there has been only one case in recent years which 
the S.P.R. have considered sufficiently well vouched 
for to justify a consideration in its Proceedings. 
This case is that of Marthe Beraud, discussed by 
Miss Verrall (Mrs. Salter) in (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. 
XXVII., pp. 333-369). Mile. Beraud first exhibited 
these phenomena at the early age of seventeen, in the 
house of her friend Madame Noel, at Algiers. 
Prof. Richet investigated these in 1905. His con- 
clusions, which were generally favourable, were the 
subject of considerable controversy, and in view, 
both of the fact that full test conditions were not 
imposed, and also that some circumstantial allegations 
of fraud were made and never satisfactorily refuted, 
these earlier experiments cannot be considered 
evidential. 

In 1909 the medium came to Paris and gave sittings 
to a small private circle under the auspices of M. 
Alexandre Bisson, a well-known French playwright. 
Prolonged and careful observations were here carried 
out by Dr. Von Schrenck-Notzing of Munich, who 
published his results in considerable detail in his 
Materialisation Phanomene (Munich, 1914). The 
excerpts from this work given in the above-quoted 
paper show that the test conditions were very rigorous 
(loc. cit., pp. 347-8, 351-3 and 367). The material- 
ization cabinet, and its only contents, a chair, were 
thoroughly searched before each sitting. The chair 
cover even being opened to avoid the possibility of any 
accessories being therein secreted. The medium was 
also carefully examined. This examination was of the 



SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 81 

most searching nature, carried out by the learned 
Doctor, assisted on some occasions, by other physicians . 
The full details cannot be quoted here, but it will 
suffice to say that concealment of any material on the 
medium's person was apparently impossible. Further, 
to dispose of the possibility that the material used in 
the apparent materializations was concealed in the 
stomach and produced by "regurgitation," a faculty 
possessed by some, though very few, persons, an 
obvious medical test was applied at the conclusion of 
certain of the sittings, which showed that no foreign 
matter had been thus concealed. The learned 
Doctor's tests, though hardly delicate were certainly 
thorough. After the above-mentioned examination, 
the medium was clothed in a special close-fitting 
garment, which was sewn up after she had put it on. 
Finally her head was completely enclosed in a veil 
of small mesh which was sewn to the neck of the 
above-mentioned garment. These elaborate pre- 
cautions must have definitely assured that the medium 
could not obtain access to any part of her person 
without breaking the threads by which the garments 
had been sewn together. 

In spite of these precautions, portions of material- 
ized matter, spirit hands and even spirit faces were 
exhibited. Hallucination of the observers is refuted 
by the fact that flash-light photographs were taken 
on many occasions, which confirmed the objectivity 
of the phenomena. 

Mme. Bisson published a complete account of the 
experiments in her book " Les Phenomenes dits de 
Materialization" (Paris, 1914), which is copiously 
illustrated with reproductions of these photographs. 



82 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

The experienced and highly critical authoress of 
the paper from which I have quoted, finds herself 
unable to conclude that the phenomena are wholly- 
fraudulent, and, I think, the unbiassed reader must 
give the same verdict. 

If we had a few more records of experiments under 
similar stringent conditions, we should be driven 
provisionally to accept " materialization," at any rate 
in its elementary forms, as a fact. Unfortunately, 
we have no such records. Accounts of materializa- 
tions and their cognate phenomena, are, indeed, 
numerous in the publications of avowed spiritualists, 
but they are almost invariably valueless as evidence. 
To any impartial person, who does not permit the 
" outrageousness " of these phenomena to exclude 
them from his consideration, this is regrettable. 
The establishment of materialization, as a fact, would 
be of such vast importance, not only intrinsically, 
but by its implications on other departments of 
psychic research, that it is very disappointing when 
examining a case, which, on the face of it may have 
" something in it " to find that its evidential value 
is nil, owing to the fact that the recorders have omitted 
such essential particulars as dates, measurements, 
conditions of light and control, etc. This is as 
reprehensible as if a physicist were to publish the 
results of some delicate experiment and omit to 
record the atmospheric temperature and barometric 
pressure. Thus, the Ven. Archdeacon Colley re- 
corded avast number of ostensible marvels in material- 
ization which are perfectly useless as evidence, owing 
to the omission to note the conditions of the experi- 
ments. 



! 



SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 83 

We have, therefore, to pass such accounts over as 
non-evidential, and are not concerned to discuss the 
bona fides of his medium " Dr." Monck. In this 
connection, I would like to emphasise the fact that 
our first consideration of any alleged phenomena, 
should be directed to the evidential value of the 
phenomena themselves, and not to the reputation, 
past or present, of the medium producing them. The 
fact that " Dr." Monck was sentenced to three months 
imprisonment as a rogue and a vagabond need not 
concern us. 

• This method of dealing with the subject of both 
materialization and physical phenomena, has at 
least the value of simplicity by avoiding interminable 
and inconclusive discussions of the bona fides of this 
or that medium. The safe plan is to assume that 
'all manifestations are the result of fraud (conscious 
or unconscious), unless the records give reasonable 
proof that the phenomena could not have been fraudu- 
lently produced^ even if the medium had tried to do so, 
'owing to the stringency of the control and the com- 
petence of the observers. 

' It is, perhaps, improbable that we shall ever obtain 
satisfactory evidential records of advanced materiali- 
zation phenomena. Spiritualists claim that full 
psycho-plastic materialization can only take place 
in darkness. That light should have a disintegrating 
effect on such formations does not seem unreasonable. 
Darkness, however, offers an almost insuperable 
barrier to the application of stringent test conditions. 
•Sir W. Crookes' reports of experiments with Miss 
Cook (Mrs. Corner) exemplify this. 

In regard to " spirit " photography with a camera, 



84 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

the case is different. The actual phenomenon, the 
exposure of the plate, necessarily take place in full 
light. The observations required are simple, namely, 
thorough examination of the camera, slides, and 
plates, and continuous supervision in the studio and 
developing room. It should not be difficult to 
impose conditions which would render substitution 
of plates, double exposure, or trickery in develop- 
ment impossible. We do not, however, find any 
evidence of spirit photography which is supported by 
records of satisfactory and decisive precautions. 

These precautions are even easier to carry out in 
the case of photographs purporting to be obtained, 
not by exposure in a camera, but by direct impression 
on one or more plates in an unopened packet. In 
such cases, it should be a very simple matter to obtain 
ample independent verification of the fact that the 
packet had never been opened from the time it left 
the shop where it was purchased, to the time when 
it was opened in the developing-room. 

The Rev. Prof. Henslow (Proofs of the Truths of 
Spiritualism , 1919), records several cases of " direct 
impression " For one case the evidence is, as far 
as it goes, so good that it is a thousand pities that the 
Rev. Professor did not make it conclusive by taking 
a little more trouble. He describes (loc. cit.> p. 228-9) 
how he sent an unopened packet of plates to a seance, 
and received it back, apparently unopened, with a! 
psychograph (given in facsimile in Fig. 48 of the 
above work) impressed upon it. 

" Not being able to attend the seance at Crewe 
I sent the packet just as it was bought, but with 
tape wrapped round it, and sealed on the end 



SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 85 

and sides. After a week Mr. Hope returned 
it intact ; for I found it exactly as I had sent it. 
There was not the slightest indication of the 
seals having been tampered with, etc. I at 
once took it to a professional photographer and 
asked him if the packet had been opened. He 
was good enough to write me the following 
certificate. — * I am quite satisfied that these 
plates have not been opened or tampered with 
in any way. H.L.Y.* — (This was subsequently 
corroborated by the manager of a leading firm 
of photographers in London). He allowed me 
to accompany him to his dark chamber, and I 
there informed him all about it. He procured 
fresh materials for development. I cut the 
cover across the middle and so could remove 
the two ends. Taking out the first parcel 
of four slides, I developed the third plate only. 
The message was on it. 

A letter from Mr. Hope on returning the 
unopened packet of plates to me, was as follows : — 
Dear Sir, — We are sending you the packet 
and hope there is something on the plates, 
although we have to chance it. Please send 
word as soon as you can as we are anxious 
about it. 

Our guide says they have tried to impress the 
third plate from the top." 
If only the Rev. Professor had submitted the packet 
for examination by the same two independent 
witnesses before he despatched it and had caused it 
to be sealed and marked by them in such a manner 
that to have opened and reclosed the packet, or to 



86 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

have substituted another packet for it, would have 
been impossible, and if he had put his own and his 
witnesses' attestations on records in writing before 
despatch, the evidence would have been unimpeach- 
able. As it is, a good ship is lost for a ha'porth of 
tar. The proof of the power of some external 
influence thus to impress a message — an impossibility 
by any present known form of radiation — would 
carry us some way towards the acceptance of psycho- 
plastic materialization as a fact. 

No suggestion is made that the application of 
rigorous tests and adequate verification has been 
avoided by Prof. Henslow or by other Spiritualists 
who have vouched for such phenomena. It is, 
however, submitted that some carelessness is ex- 
hibited in this failure both to apply, and to record 
in full detail, all necessary precautions. Convinced 
Spiritualists appear to exhibit a certain impatience 
at the demand for purely mundane, and to them 
trifling, details of verification. They should not, 
however, allow their own implicit faith in the reality 
of these phenomena to cause them to omit tests and 
verifications which (though for themselves unneces- 
sary) may both strengthen the feeble knees of the 
weaker brethren and confound the sceptical. Let 
them remember that in psychical research, as in 
science in general, paroles d'honneur have, as G. H. 
Lewes said, no appreciable weight. 

I think there can be little doubt, that the only 
reasonable conclusion which can be reached in 
regard to Materialization and its cognate phenomena, 
is that the present evidence is inadequate to 
permit of their acceptance as proved facts. Further, 



SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 87 

that the great part of the so-called evidence which is 
put forward for these phenomena is of no serious 
value. It is, however, permissible to hope that other 
materializing mediums may before long be investi- 
gated with the same care as in the case of Marthe 
Beraud. Even a definitely negative conclusion would 
be of great value as it would clear the ground. The 
path of psychical research is undoubtedly impeded 
by the presence of these unproved, but yet not 
definitely disproved, phenomena. 



It must be noted that Dr. Hereward Carrington, a most cautious 
and experienced investigator, gives (Modern Psychical Phenomena 
Cap. 8, Kegan Paul, 1919) some examples of " spirit " and " thought " 
photographs for which the evidence is of considerable strength. 
Although Dr. Carrington does not commit himself to any definite 
theory of their origin, he is obviously satisfied that they are not to be 
explained away by fraud, carelessness, or any similar simple cause. 



CHAPTER V 

COMMUNICATION WITH 

THE DISEMBODIED. 

THE METHODS 

Before considering the evidence for Communica- 
tion with the disembodied, it is necessary, briefly, 
to enumerate the means and agencies by, or through 
which the alleged communications are received. 

These agencies are human. The alleged com- 
munications are translated by human beings, with 
or without some simple mechanism. 

Human agents have, obviously, the power — con- 
sciously or unconsciously — to fabricate certain com- 
munications. 

If it can be shown that the communications are, 
throughout of such a nature that they could have 
been thus fabricated, or if, a fortiori, there is a reason- 
able suspicion that the agents have had, not only the 
power, but the will, to deceive ; the case for com- 
munication with the disembodied through such 
channels, must fail. 

If on the other hand, it is found that there are 
verifiable records which cannot be explained by 
conscious or unconscious deception, or by telepathic 
communication from the embodied, we have, there- 
by, evidence pointing towards proof of veridical 
communications. Evidence which is cumulative, 
increasing in value with the increase in number of 
such records. 



COMMUNICATION— METHODS 89 

The methods by which all the records, which are 
worthy of serious attention, have been received 
fall into two groups. 

^Firstly, those which have been obtained through the 
operation of the physiological mechanism of persons 
in a general state of normal consciousness employing 
some rudimentary apparatus, to which apparatus the 
appropriate name of Autoscopes has been given. 

Secondly, those received through persons, 
11 Mediums," not in a state of normal consciousness, 
but to a greater or less degree in a state of trance. 
The communications being given by word of mouth 
or by automatic writing. 

The former division includes several methods which, 
although the same as to the general mechanism of 
translation, yet differ in detail. They are as follows : — 

Automatic Writing. The percipient writes in 
the ordinary manner, but the motion of his hand 
is not normally controlled by him. He exercises 
no conscious volition as to what is being written. 
Sometimes this absence of conscious control — which 
must otherwise be accepted chiefly on the Automatisms 
own statements — receives striking and positive con- 
firmation. Thus the writing may come " upside 
down " starting at the bottom right-hand corner of 
the page, as if the pencil was being worked by 
someone sitting opposite to the writer, Or in the 
other cases, the words are actually inverted and 
11 looking-glass writing" which can only be deciphered 
by reflection in a mirror, is obtained (C.F. Barrett 
On the Threshold of the Unseen, p. 191). 

These latter phenomena, coupled with the fact 
that the great majority of these automatic records 



90 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

are not the products of professional mediums, but 
of persons, of some consideration, who could have 
had no ulterior motives to lead them to embark on 
a course of deliberate deception, justify us in accept- 
ing them as being, as they purpose to be, the result 
of no conscious effort of the Automatists' will. 

The Planchette. We have next writing pro- 
duced by this well-known apparatus. Its general 
form is a small three-legged platform. Two legs 
are provided with small rollers or otherwise so 
arranged as to move with a minimum of friction. 
The third leg carries a pencil which traces the move- 
ments of the apparatus over a large sheet of paper. 
The Planchette is, in effect, only a pencil so arranged 
that it can be simultaneously controlled by the fingers 
of several persons. 

The Ouija Board. This is a similar but superior 
piece of apparatus. The moveable portion is similar 
to the Planchette except that the pencil is replaced 
by a plain indicating point. It traverses over a sheet 
of glass, or other smooth surface, to, or under, 
which are fixed the various letters of the Alphabet. 
Communications are spelt out by recording the various 
letters at which the indicator pauses in its pere- 
grinations. The record is taken down by some 
other person than the operators, who in many cases, 
as in the experiments recorded by Sir Wm. Barrett 
{op. cit.y p. 177-180), are blindfolded and, in 
addition, in some trials, an opaque screen was held 
over the board. If, as in these experiments, the 
operators cannot follow with their eyes the move- 
ments of the indicator, it seems certain that there 
can be no conscious guidance by them. Especially 



COMMUNICATION— METHODS 91 

is this the case when, as in some of these trials, the 
positions of the various letters under the glass sheet 
were, from time to time, changed so that the operators 
could have derived no help from a mental picture 
of the positions of the letters (as a blindfolded chess 
expert can retain in his mind the position of the 
pieces on a chess-board). 

Table Tilting. This is a crude, but apparently 
effective method for the translation of short and 
simple communications. It is, in effect, an adaption 
of the long familiar phenomenon of " table turning " 
to the transmission of intelligible and coherent 
messages. 

The method is quite simple. The Alphabet is 
called over letter by letter. The table is observed 
to tilt as certain letters are called. These ietters 
are noted down and connected words and sentences 
are often found to result. 

Questions are also asked by the sitters which 
admit of a direct reply " yes," or " no." This 
reply is received by a predetermined number of 
tilts or movements of the table for " yes " or " no." 
A conversation can, therefore, be carried on much 
as one might communicate with a dumb, and par- 
tially paralysed man, who could but nod or shake 
his head when questions were put to him, or letters 
of the alphabet called over. 

Contact between the hands of the medium and the 
table is generally maintained during these com- 
munications but there are apparently cases where 
movements resulting in connected messages have 
taken place without physical contact. 

In regard to the possibility of conscious deception, 



92 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

the table method is certainly less satisfactory than 
either of the two autoscopes above referred to. In 
the hands of a single professional operator the pos- 
sibility of deliberate fraud cannot be eliminated. 
When, however, as in many cases, for example the 
table sittings reported in Raymond, or in The Great 
Beyond and its Inhabitants (Kegan Paul, 1919), the 
movements of the table are under the joint control 
of several persons of integrity, any imputation of 
conscious fraud would be unreasonable. 

It will be observed that by the above classification 
the phenomenon of " direct writing/' i.e., the re- 
ception of written messages by other means than 
the hands of human beings is excluded. 

This exclusion is justified by the fact that such 
communications are distinctly suspect. 

The principal " direct " method was slate writing 
referred to in a previous chapter. 

There is one interesting record of an attempt at 
writing by a pencil not held in any human hand 
(vide Sir W. Barrett, Op. Cit., p. 84). 

The medium was the famous Daniel Douglas 
Home and the recorder Sir W. Crookes, who says : — 
" A pencil and some pieces of paper were 
lying on the table. Presently the pencil rose, 
on its point and after advancing by hesitating 
jerks to the paper, fell down. It then rose 
and again fell, and tried a third time with no 
better result. After this a small wooden lath, 
which was lying on the table slid towards the 
pencil and rose a few inches from the table. 
The pencil rose again, and propping itself 
against the lath, the two together made an 



COMMUNICATION— METHODS 93 

effort to mark the paper. It fell and then a 
joint effort was again made. After a third 
trial they gave it up and an alphabet message 
told us ' We have tried to do as you asked but 
our power is exhausted.' " 

The reader will probably agree that, here also, the 
conjuror's art will account for everything {vide 
p. 52 above). 

Enough has, I think, been said to warrant the con- 
clusion that we can, in general, accept the communica- 
tions received by automatic writing or by the auto- 
scopes above described, as being free from the impu- 
tation of conscious fraud. 

Many people would say that no such assumption 
can safely be made in the case of communications 
received through professional trance mediumship, 
but that, on the contrary, it can be safely assumed 
that conscious fraud is, to a greater or less degree, 
invariably to be imputed to " paid mediums." 

Such an opinion is natural. We have seen in the 
previous chapters that professional mediumship 
has been prominently associated with many dubious 
manifestations of the physical phenomena of spirit- 
ualism. We have also seen that many of the men 
and women who have purported to exhibit such 
phenomena have been detected in the employment 
of nothing more transcendental than the methods 
of the ordinary conjuror or illusionist. 

Present day professional mediumship has to suffer 
for the sins of its predecessors and the rain of sus- 
picion falls both on the just and the unjust. 

The stigma attaching to the word " paid " is also 
not entirely groundless. 



94 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

There is, no doubt, no intrinsic reason why a 
medium should not receive payment for his, or her, 
services. If spiritualism is, as is sometimes, though 
erroneously, claimed M A New Gospel, " it is in 
accordance with precedent that " they that preach 
the Gospel should live of the Gospel." 

The evil of payment in mediumship lies in the 
fact that the payer expects to receive tangible and 
immediate value for his money. The power of 
mediumship, whatever it may, or may not be, is 
most certainly erratic and largely spontaneous. 
Physical and psychical atmosphere appear to have 
an enormous influence. 

In Automatic Writing, for example, Mrs. Verrall 
and other automatists, of careful observation, have 
invariably told us that the impulse to write is not in 
their control, that they cannot write " to order " 
but only when they receive an affect from the external 
constraining them so to do. 

It is clear, therefore, that even if a professional 
medium is, at times, able to achieve genuine com- 
munication with the disembodied, the nature and 
time of communication will be largely outside his 
control. He cannot get en rapport to order. 
Meanwhile there is a prospective sitter with a fee, 
and the medium has either to turn him away, both 
losing the fee, and also imparing his reputation as a 
ready practitioner of the occult, or else he has to take 
the fee and give value for it by a communication 
which is merely a fraudulent concoction. What wonder 
that he sometimes chooses the latter course of action. 

A discussion of the bona fides of professional 
mediums could lead to no positive result, but by the 






COMMUNICATION— METHODS 95 

almost interminable process of exhaustively consider- 
ing the credentials of each medium separately. A 
simple and safe solution of the question is to exclude 
altogether, as suspect, any records giving information 
which could reasonably have been obtained by the 
medium through normal channels of information. 

For example : — A sitter is known to a medium 
either by previous visits, or in virtue of his being a 
person more or less well-known in public, or spirit- 
ualist circles. The sitter receives a communication 
purporting to emanate from a recently deceased 
relative. The communication states accurately 
many ordinary facts regarding the deceased, his 
name, place of previous residence and interment, 
age, cause and date of death, and so forth. It is a 
reasonable assumption that such particulars, which 
could have been readily obtained from an obituary 
notice in the Press, have been thus obtained, and, 
hence, that the communication is nothing more 
than a rechauffe of information obtained through 
normal channels. 

If, on the other hand, the sitter is really unknown 
to the medium, if the communication purports 
to come from a long deceased relative who had died 
abroad, or concerning whose life and decease infor- 
mation would obviously be inaccessible, if the 
information given is approximately correct, the 
assumption is justified that the trance consciousness 
of the medium is really at work and is giving a bona 
fide translation of the affects received upon it. 

It must, however, be again repeated that this does 
not necessarily imply that the communication emanates 
from the intelligence who purports to communicate. 



96 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

If, as generally must be the case, the information 
given is within the knowledge of the sitter the 
hypothesis of telepathy cannot be passed over. 

The application of the criterion suggested above 
effects a large reduction in the material to be examined. 
Such a line of demarcation may indeed exclude 
some veridical matter. The fact that information 
may have been accessible to a medium through 
normal channels, does not necessarily prove that he 
has, in fact, employed these channels to obtain it. It 
is, however, obviously the safer course to cut away 
all dead wood even though in the process, some 
live shoots may also be severed. 

We need, however, to exercise some restraint 
in our decision as to whether information is, or is 
not, likely to have been accessible to the medium 
through normal channels. 

It would be unreasonable to credit any medium 
with access to a body of information approaching 
in magnitude and detail the records of, say, the 
Criminal Investigation Department, or a modern 
Commercial Information Bureau, in their respective 
spheres. 

Reference is, indeed, often made to a supposititious 
International Information Bureau for Mediums. 
It has been freely premised that such an organiza- 
tion exists for the collection and dissemination of 
information regarding those who consult, or who are 
likely to consult, professional mediums. 

The probability of the existence of such an organi- 
zation has, however, been greatly discounted by the 
existence of the Censorship during the past War, 
added to the well-known fact that the police, during 



COMMUNICATION— METHODS 97 

that period, undoubtedly kept a special surveillance 
over those practising professional mediumship owing 
to the often cosmopolitan connections of such prac- 
titioners. If, therefore, any such Central Clearing 
House for information existed it is a reasonable 
assumption that its activities would have been greatly 
restricted, if not reduced to nothingness, during 
the past War. 

We find, however, that never during any period 
of the history of spiritualism was there such activity. 

The cause of that activity has been the exceptional 
desire for communication with the dead, owing to 
the appalling loss of life among all classes of the 
community. It would seem that, if the professional 
practitioners of mediumship were dependent for 
their information upon a central clearing house, the 
activities of which owing to the War conditions 
were suspended, they would have been in a very poor 
position to satisfy the desires of their clients. We 
find, however, that never before have so many per- 
sons stated that they have received satisfactory 
assurance of messages from the departed, as during 
the last two years of the War. 

How far such assurance is the result of receptive 
anticipation is another matter. The point now 
taken is simply that the experiences of the last two or 
three years seem decidedly to negative the likelihood of 
the existence of any " Central Information Bureau. " 

We have, I hope, arrived at an approximate cri- 
terion for the elimination of information acquired 
through ordinary channels by a medium before 
a sitting. This does not, however, dispose of all 
openings for conscious fraud. 

H 



98 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

There are means by which a medium can obtain 
considerable information from the sitter, or sitters, 
during the progress of a voice sitting (I refer entirely 
to information obtained by the exercise of the normal 
senses, and not by telepathy). 

It is always difficult to be sure that the supposed 
trance condition of a medium is genuine and, further, 
some practitioners do not even profess to be entranced. 
The medium has, therefore, obvious facilities for 
using his or her wits. The study of the expression 
of the sitter, muscle reading, and that kind of pro- 
gressive guessing appropriately termed " fishing," 
are all ready means for obtaining information. 
Especially if the sitter is likely to repeat his visit to 
the medium, information acquired at one sitting can 
be produced at the next, as if entirely spontaneous, 
with great effect, as the sitter will generally have 
forgotten that the information had been previously 
obtained from him. 

Several good examples of " fishing " will be found 
in an account by Mr. Rogers {Evening Standard, 
March 13th, 1919), of a sitting with " Mrs. B." a 
medium strongly recommended to him by Sir A. 
Conan Doyle. 

When trying to give the name of a deceased friend 
lately passed away she tried successively " Elizabeth, 
Eliza, Bessie, Tess, Nell, Nellie. " All of which were 
wrong. 

Later on, after describing with only moderate 
accuracy a deceased brother of the sitter, she ran 
through an even longer catalogue of names. Edgar, 
Eddie, Teddie, Jeff, Jack, Harold, Donald, Ronald, 
Walter, Walters, Harry. There is a fair possibility 



COMMUNICATION— METHODS 99 

that a list of this length may contain the right name, 
or something like it. If so, most people, unless 
they have an exceptional command of their expres- 
sion, are likely to give some faint, but appreciable, 
intimation when the correct name is called out. 

Where as in some cases the medium holds the hand 
of the sitter " Muscle reading " is a powerful aid. 
The performances which Mr. Capper and Mr. 
Stewart Cumberland have rendered familiar, show 
how definite are the indications which an expert 
in the matter can detect by unconscious muscular 
movements. The absolutely unconsciousness of 
such muscular direction will be shown by an enquiry 
from anyone who has assisted at one of these demon- 
strations. The answer received will always be that 
no conscious indication whatever was given to the 
performer. 

The possibilities of unconscious indications are 
considerable. As Podmore says (Op. Cit. y Vol. II, 
p. 300) : — " The effort to concentrate thought on a 
concrete object tends constantly to produce some 
form of muscular activity ... or movement in the 
direction of the object. " 

Enough has now been said to show that, without 
J going beyond the ordinary laws of nature, an explana- 
tion can be offered for many of the alleged com- 
munications with the disembodied. 

The above remarks do not apply to communica- 
tions received through mediums such as Mrs. Piper, 
where the observers have been persons of wide 
experiences with a full knowledge of the possible 
errors and so situated that they could guard against 
them. 



CHAPTER VI 

COMMUNICATION WITH 

THE DISEMBODIED. 

THE EVIDENCE 

The amount of published matter, evidential or 
otherwise, bearing on the weighty question of com- 
munication with the departed is enormous and appar- 
ently still increasing. It is, obviously, impossible 
within the confines of available space to deal with the 
evidence in any detail. All that can be attempted 
is to give a summary and an estimate of the value of 
the evidence for communication as it now stands. 
In this department of psychic research events move 
not slowly. It is therefore possible that conclusions 
which, to-day, are justified, may become, to-morrow, 
unduly timid owing to new evidence. 

The communications may be divided into two 
classes. 

Firstly, the very large number of messages 
which have been received by some automatic means, 
generally writing, and which have been copiously 
published during the last few years. Such com- 
munications purport to describe, often in great 
detail, the experiences of those who have passed over. 
They seldom contain anything in the nature of tests 
and are hence, intrinsically, not evidential. They 
are, however, interesting in themselves, and the 
general correspondence in the accounts of life in 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 101 

" The Beyond " received through the hands of 
various perfectly independent automatists is striking. 
I venture to think that it is well that such communi- 
cations should attain publicity, as far as may be 
convenient, in the form in which they are received. 
The winnowing of the chaff from the wheat, the dis- 
crimination between what has emanated from the 
subliminal of the automatist, and what may have been 
originated by extra-terrene intelligences, is a matter 
for experts, certainly not for the automatists them- 
selves. The comparison and analysis of these 
numerous records will be a labour for some future 
Hercules of the S.P.R. 

Although these records may not provide direct 
evidence they do undoubtedly, and not improperly, 
create a general atmosphere in favour of the possi- 
bility of communication from the dead, as Prof. 
William James said (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXVII. , 
p. 35):- 

" The notion that such an immense current 
of experience, complex in so many ways, should 
spell out absolutely nothing but the words 
" intentional humbug " appears very unlikely. 
The notion that so many men and women, in all 
other respects honest enough, should have this 
preposterous monkeying self annexed to their 
personality, seems to me so weird that the spirit 
theory immediately takes on a more probable 
appearance. The spirits, if spirits there be, 
must indeeed work under incredible complica- 
tions and falsifications, but at least, if they are 
present, some honesty is left in a whole depart- 
ment of the universe, which, otherwise, is run 



102 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

by pure deception. The more I realise the 
quantitative massiveness of the phenomenon 
and its complexity, the more incredible it seems 
to me that in a world all of whose vaster features 
we are in the habit of considering to be sincere 
at least, however brutal, this feature should be 
wholly constituted of insincerity." 
Although it may be anticipated that comparison 
and analysis of these records may ultimately contri- 
bute to the proof of communication with the dis- 
embodied, yet in their present " unsorted" condition, 
they do not furnish definite evidence of a kind which 
can be brought forward in the practical discussion 
of the subject which is herein attempted. 

For this we must turn to the smaller but yet con- 
siderable number of communications which have been 
submitted to searching analysis and detailed com- 
parison by various highly critical and fully qualified 
members of the S.P.R.,both in England and America. 
The reader who wishes to arrive at a reasoned 
conclusion on the subject, and who is prepared to 
devote some little time and trouble to achieve this 
end, must be referred to the original papers, notably, 
amongst recent contributions, those by Mrs. Sidgwick, 
Mrs. Verrall, Miss Johnson, The Rt. Hon. G. W. 
Balfour, Sir O. Lodge, Sir Wm. Barrett, Mr. 
Piddington and Prof. William James, which will be 
found in the S.P.R. Proceedings from Vol. XX. up 
to the present date. 

He will not fail to be impressed by the impartiality 
of the analysis and the absence of anything in the 
nature of special pleading or the straining of facts to 
fit an extra-normal hypothesis. 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 103 



The first need is to arrive at a clear idea as to the 
kind of communications which can be considered as 
evidential. Assuming that there is a disembodied 
intelligence desirous of communicating with a living 
person, how can he afford proof of the authenticity 
of the communications received by the latter ? 
Here, I think, there is much popular misconception. 
The casual thinker would tell us that if the departed 
can communicate, it would be easy for them to do so 
in a manner which would admit of no ambiguity. 
Further reflection will show that this is by no means 
the case. 

If a dead person can communicate with us in the 
present time he must obviously exist in the present 
time, therefore he must give proof of his existence at 
the time when he sends his message. How is any 
communication to give a proof that it does as it 
purports, emanate in present time from a definite 
person who has once lived on this earth ? He can 
tell us of his past or his present life. He can also 
foretell as to the future. Foretellings are not evid- 
ence at the time as they obviously cannot be checked. 
A good deal of prophesying, of a mild description, 
has been done through some mediums. The pre- 
dictions, however, have generally proved to be wrong. 
Further, many communicators state that they have 
no power to foretell the future, and, at most, they are 
but able to give a slightly better prognosis of coming 
events owing to the fact that in their disembodied 
condition they can discern the motives and tendencies 
leading to events somewhat more clearly than we can. 
In regard to the present, communicators have given 
lengthy descriptions of their present existence. 



104 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

These also are non-evidential as we on earth cannot 
obviously in any way verify the correctness of these 
descriptions. In regard to the descriptions of the 
After-life of which so many have recently appeared, 
it is necessary to point out that, although they are 
non-evidential, they must not be permitted to induce 
an a priori antagonism against the consideration of 
messages which are. Much prejudice has been 
imported into the discussion of this matter because 
so many of these descriptions of the life beyond are 
both so different from the traditional ideas of the 
After-life, and also contain matter which appears 
essentially mundane. It should always be remember- 
ed that any such communication is an endeavour to 
describe the transcendental in finite terms, and in 
language which is drawn from the storage of ideas of 
the automatist or medium who is transmitting the 
message. If the future life as depicted, for example, 
through the trance mediumship of Mrs. Piper is 
vastly different from that described in the Apocalypse, 
it is permissable to speculate that the latter is con- 
fined exclusively to the highest plans of the After- 
life, (as St. Paul specificially calls it, in regard to his 
visions, the " third heaven ") while the former are 
the experiences of those who are very far from 
having reached a state of spiritual development 
fitting them for entry to the highest Heavens. There 
must be few, even amongst the most orthodox 
Christians, who have not reached a belief that there 
is progress and development on the other side of 
11 the veil," and that the After-life is a life of action 
not of coma. For a careful and definitely scriptual 
discussion of the subject from the Anglo-Catholic 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 105 

point of view, the reader may be confidently referred 
to the works of the Rev. Arthur Chambers, notably 
" Ourself After Death " (Chas. Taylor, 1916). 

It is, therefore, to be hoped that no reader will adopt 
the illogical attitude that because the descriptions 
of the After-life received through a certain medium 
are apparently ridiculous, therefore all communica- 
tions received through the same or similar channels 
are unworthy of serious consideration. 

This attitude is, however, not uncommon. How 
often was it remarked in regard to " Raymond " that 
it must be " all rubbish, " because the descriptions 
received through the " Feda" control were so trivial, 
frivolous and even irreverent. How often did one 
see the famous " whiskey and soda " episode (Loc. 
Cit.y p. 198) quoted by reviewers, who should have 
known better, as justifying the wholesale dismissal 
of the book as a mass of useless rubbish. 

Objection might, indeed, have properly been taken 
to the inclusion of such unverifiable matter in a book 
which would obviously be widely read by the general 
public to many of whom, it may have been their first 
introduction to the subject. Sir O. Lodge was 
careful to point out that he did not regard much 
of this matter as being any more than the creation 
of the medium's subconscious mentality, based on 
what she had read elsewhere in spiritualist literature. 
Unfortunately many people do not seem, as is so 
often the case, to have paid attention to these 
qualifying remarks. 

It was remarked above that the sifting of such 
communications was a matter for an expert. In the 
case of so experienced an investigator as Sir O. Lodge 



106 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

it would, I venture to think, have been both legitimate 
and preferable to have carried out the sifting before 
publication. The evidence for communication with 
the disembodied does not rest on the proportion of 
verifiable to unverifiable matter received. Hence, 
except for the purpose of studying the psychology 
of the medium or estimating the extent of his or 
her own storage of ideas (matters which are not 
likely to be attempted by the ordinary reader) the 
publication of unverifiable matter is not of much 
utility. 

We see then that descriptions of the present 
condition of the communicator can have no direct 
evidential value. 

We are, therefore, left only with the past. If an 
alleged communicator tells us something in regard 
to his experience when on earth we can often verify it. 

Before proceeding further, a simple analogy ;may 
serve to give an idea of the great difficulty of the 
problem. " A " has a friend " B " in America, of 
whose existence he has no evidence. The latter 
wishes to send a communication which will convince 
" A " of his existence. Assume that his sole means 
of communication is by cable and furthermore, that 
he cannot adopt the obvious method of going to 
his bankers, or to a judicial functionary, and thereby 
obtaining a certificate of his identity, how can he 
achieve his purpose ? Only, surely, by describing 
in his cablegram some incident, or fact, known to 
" A " and to himself, but not a matter of common 
knowledge. For example a message such as " I am 
1 B ' who from to practiced as a physi- 
cian at * X/ " would be a matter of possible common 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 107 

knowledge and hence inadequate evidence, while the 
description of some trivial and personal matter such 
a message as " I am * B ' who used to be so fond of 
gooseberry jam," would, if verified, be almost con- 
vincing evidence, as it would neither be common 
knowledge nor would it be accessible to anyone in 
America, who had obtained the correspondence or 
diary of " B," and was, for his own ends, simulating 
him. 

Perhaps this crude illustration may serve to show 
that the triviality that is so often alleged as a reproach 
against the communication is, in reality, a feature 
which strengthens them from the evidential point of 
view. 

Most of us, if placed in a similar situation to the 
above, would, I think, have no little difficulty in 
selecting from our past experience, as known to our 
distant friend, some item of unimpeachable evidential 
value. It is not, therefore, surprising that dis- 
embodied communicators, who must be working 
under great difficulty and confusion, should not find 
it easy to give direct and convincing authentication 
of the messages which they endeavour to transmit. 

Before proceeding further, it maybe well to explain, 
for the benefit of any reader new to the subject, 
some matters which may not be familiar. 

In the usual communication through a medium in 
a state of trance the modus operandi appears to be as 
follows : — 

We have first the disembodied intelligence who 
originates the message, called the communicator. He 
does not generally actually operate the voice or hand 
of the medium. This work is the function of the 



108 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

control, also a disembodied intelligence, who receives 
the message from the communicator and impresses 
it on the medium by whom it is given out, either by 
word of mouth or by automatic writing. Sometimes 
the communicator himself controls, but the usual 
arrangement seems to be that the medium, often 
called by the disembodied the " light " or the 
" machine," is worked by the control, since he is 
supposed to have more skill and experience in 
manipulating the machine than the ordinary spirit. 

The communicator on the other side has, therefore, 
to use an intermediary much as the sitter on this side 
has to employ a medium or sensitive. The control 
does not appear to be in any other respect analagous 
to the medium. He is in effect the operator who 
works the machine when its consciousness is with- 
drawn. The controls of Mrs. Piper, whose medium- 
ship is dealt with below, give circumstantial descrip- 
tions of the method in which she is, so to speak, 
removed entirely from her own body when in trance, 
the controls stepping into her place and working 
her physiological mechanism. 

In this connection the records of Mrs. Piper's 
return to consciousness after trance are significant. 
Mrs. Sidgwick attached considerable importance to 
this " waking stage " and devoted some little space 
to its analysis {vide Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXVIII. , 
pp. 205-255). 

A convenient abbreviation has been adopted to 
indicate a certain communicator using a certain 
automatist Thus we indicate Myers communi- 
cating through Mrs. Piper as Myers P , Gurney 
through Mrs. Holland as Gurney H . 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 109 

This is not the place to discuss at length whether 
the controls are really what they purport to be, or 
whether they are creations of the subliminal of the 
medium, in effect multiple personalities. The reader 
of the detailed records of Mrs. Piper's trance medium- 
ship, will, however, certainly be struck with the 
distinction and consistency of the various controls. 

During the many years that "Phinuit" controlled, 
he was always consistent with himself and never 
mixed in personality with others. " George Pelham " 
was the same. " Rector " (said to be the spirit of a 
deceased clergyman who controlled the hand of 
Stainton Moses and was the ostensible author of 
most of the " Spirit teachings ") had a distinct and 
definitely religious personality. Hodgson, Myers, 
Gurney, and Sidgwick, who have all purported to 
communicate, and control, since their decease, 
were also most lifelike and distinct impersonations, 
if impersonations they were. So shrewd an observer 
as Prof. William James was strongly impressed with 
the personality of the Hodgson control. The char- 
acteristics, mannerisms, tricks of speech, etc., with 
which, as a very old friend of Hodgson, he had been 
so familiar when the latter was living, were frequently 
reproduced in the communications. The reader of 
the written record, cannot, of course, get any idea 
of this intangible, yet cogent, atmosphere. We are, 
however, if impartial, constrained to attach some 
weight to the considered opinion of so eminently 
cautious a thinker as Prof. James (vide Proc. 
S.P.R., Vol. XXIII. , pp. 1-121). 

Even when, as in Mrs. Piper's later trances, com- 
munications were received not by word of mouth but 



110 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

by automatic writing, this distinction of personality 
between various controls was observable in the script. 
The hand writing of a " Rector" message was 
different to that when " G.P.," Hodgson, or Myers 
were controlling. 

The student of psychology is familiar with the 
classic cases of multiple personality, those of Sally 
Beauchamp and Doris Fischer. In neither of these 
cases, I think, do we find anything approaching to 
the distinction and persistence of Mrs. Piper's 
controls manifested either by voice or hand. 

It is also particularly to be noted that Mrs. Piper, 
when not in trance, was, and is, a perfectly normal 
and ordinary person of good average physical health 
and by no means subject to nerves or delusions. 
On the other hand, the above two subjects of multiple 
personality were undoubtedly highly neurotic and 
in the case of Doris Fischer, had in the past been 
subjected to some severe shocks both mental and 
physical. 

These remarks are equally applicable to the auto- 
matists referred to below, whose scripts exhibit the 
same phenomenon of distinct controls and who, 
with the partial exception of Mrs. Willett, produce 
their script not in trance but under normal condition. 

Those who reject any supernormal explanation are, 
I venture to think, apt to press the hypothesis of 
multiple personality and subconscious cerebration 
to unwarranted lengths. It is easy to attribute most 
of the matter received through any medium or auto- 
matist to these causes. Experimental proof is, 
however, wanting. To attribute to this omnibus 
hypothesis, everything which would otherwise call 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 111 

for an extra-normal explanation, is perhaps convenient, 
but it is certainly unscientific. It is but one remove 
better than attributing everything to the operation 
of spirits. We require very much more extensive 
and accurate records of the existence of multiple 
personality and subconscious cerebration in physio- 
logically normal subjects, before it can be accepted 
as an adequate explanation of accurately verified 
trance phenomena, such as those of Mrs. Piper. 

It must also be remarked that in the case of Doris 
Fischer there is some evidence that the multiple 
personalities were under supernormal influence, 
that the case was one which, in early days, would 
have been described as " possession." Dr. Hyslop 
investigated this possibility and was convinced that 
two of the personalities had been controlled by 
disincarnate intelligences. His report, of consider- 
able length, is given in Proc. American S.P.R., 
Vol. XL, Aug., 1917, and is briefly summarized in 
his book " Life After Death " (Kegan Paul, 1919). 
These conclusions are, indeed, startling, but, at least, 
the possibility of the phenomena of multiple person- 
ality being due to extra-terrene interference cannot 
be summarily negatived. 

It will be clear that a message from the dead, if it 
is to be of evidential value, must give information 
which can both be verified as correct and which is 
also not within the knowledge of the medium or 
automatist through whom that message is trans- 
mitted. If, for example, the message gives inform- 
ation which was at any time known to the medium, 
we need look no further than the conscious or un- 
conscious cerebration of the medium for the origin 



112 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

of the message. If, on the other hand, the subject 
matter of the message was unknown, and could not 
have been known, to the medium it is prima facie 
evidential. 

Numerous messages which comply with the above 
conditions have been recorded by many independent 
and critical observers. 

The records of Mrs. Piper's mediumship alone 
contain examples which are quantitively and qualiti- 
tively sufficient to take us no little way towards proof. 
The outstanding importance of the Piper records 
lies in the fact that this medium has been under the 
continuous observation of numerous independent 
skilled investigators for many years, most of whom 
were initially definitely sceptical. 

This fact gives special evidential value to these 
records for the following reasons : — 

Firstly. The records are very considerable in 
extent, e.g., in the Proceedings of the (English) 
S.P.R. alone large portions of Vols. VI., VII., XIII., 
XIV., XV., XVI., XXII. , XXIII., XXIV., and the 
whole of Vol. XXVIII., are devoted to them. Their 
comparison and analysis has been carried out with 
immense care. Thus treated, the great extent of 
these records both in length and time, does un- 
doubtedly assist the reader towards a balanced 
view of the subject, somewhat as the continuous 
observation of the growth of a rare specimen would 
be more valuable to a botanist than isolated and 
discontinuous observations by various persons on 
various specimens. 

Secondly. The possibility of conscious and 
deliberate fraud is eliminated. It would be absurd to 



COMMUNICATION—EVIDENCE 1 13 

suppose that, during so many years of observation 
by competent and often sceptical investigators, 
such fraud, if it existed, would not have been soon 
detected. The hypothesis of fraud is not one which 
any reasonable person, even after a casual perusal 
of the records, can support. 

Thirdly. Continuous observation (and it should 
be remembered that practically all Mrs. Piper's 
sittings were supervised by some member of the 
S.P.R. in England or America), makes it compara- 
tively easy definitely to decide whether any inform- 
ation communicated could, or could not, have been 
within the medium's normal knowledge. In cases 
where mediums are employed more or less casually, 
the extent of their normal knowledge must be 
uncertain. In the case of Mrs. Piper, however, 
where her " goings out and comings in " were prac- 
tically under continuous observation, the bound- 
aries of her normal knowledge could be fairly 
accurately defined. 

The history of Mrs. Piper's mediumship has been 
briefly as follows : — 

Her first trance experience was in June, 1884. 

Her earliest and chief control was the famous 
1 Phinuit" who purported to be a deceased French 
physician. 

Prof. W. James came across Mrs. Piper in L885, 
and brought her to Dr. Hodgson's notice in 1SS7. 
From that date up to Hodgson's death in December, 
1905, she was under almost continuous observation 
by the S.P.R. American Branch, represented, for 
most of the period, by Hodgson himself, who arranged 
Mrs. Piper's sittings, and was present as recorder 

i 



114 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

at most of them. Professors Romaine Newbold, 
James, and Hyslop took part, or recorded, in a sub- 
stantial number of sittings. These records were of 
the most careful and detailed description. During 
the above period Mrs. Piper visited England in 
1889-90. Here she held nearly a hundred sittings, 
arranged by the English S.P.R., in which various 
leading members took part, notably : Mrs. Sidgwick, 
Sir O. Lodge, Mr. Myers and Mr. Walter Leaf. 

After Hodgson's death the detailed observations 
which he had carried out came to a close, though 
a number of sittings were arranged and recorded by 
Prof. James and to a less degree by Prof. Newbold. 

Mrs. Piper visited England twice more, in 1906-7 
and 1910-11. It was during the latter visit that her 
trance mediumship came to an end (July 31st, 1911). 
The account of this last trance is impressive {vide 
Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXVIII. , pp. 514-7). 

In regard to the modus operandi of the communica- 
tions, Mrs. Piper's trance mediumship may be divided 
into two parts. In the earlier period up to about 
1897, communication was by word of mouth, the 
chief control being " Phinuit." Under his control 
the going into trance was a rather unpleasant pro- 
ceeding, there was often much muscular effort and 
facial contortion. In 1897 the chief control passed 
from " Phinuit " to the " Imperator Band," osten- 
sibly the same entities as those who had inspired 
Stainton Moses. The Band consisted of four spirits : 
" Imperator " (the chief), " Rector," who was almost 
invariably the actual control and carried out the 
necessary executive functions on " the other side ,J 
at the sittings, " Doctor " and " Prudens," who 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 1 15 

played subordinate parts. On the advent of the new 
controls the process of passing into trance lost its 
disagreeable features and resembled only falling into 
a deep sleep. A more important change was, that 
instead of communication being made by the voice, 
automatic writing became the regular method, although 
a few " voice " sittings were interpolated. This 
change certainly facilitated investigation. The possi- 
bility of misreporting, always a factor at a voice 
sitting if a stenographer is not employed, was elimin- 
ated and the original script was always available for 
comparison with the transcriptions, if required. 

Space does not permit me to quote any of the 
Piper records in full. It is, however, necessary to 
give brief abstracts of those typical evidential records 
which by means of their simplicity can be thus dealt 
with. These are by no means the best from an 
evidential point of view, but the longer records are 
generally complicated so that no abridgement of 
reasonable length can present them fairly. The 
impressiveness of the evidence certainly loses much 
by compression. I hope therefore, that the interested 
reader may be led to turn to the original sources which 
are easily accessible. Three messages from the 
Hodgson control might first be taken. 

Richard Hodgson died on December 20th, 1905. 
He had for many years before his death been actively 
engaged in psychical research and for a long time 
had been the mainspring of the American Branch 
of the S.P.R. 

The first message came through Mrs. Piper, eight 
days after his death, on December 28th, L905, 
The incident now to be related occurred at a sitting 



116 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

a month later on January 29th, 1906. The sitter 
was a very old friend of Hodgson's, a Mrs." Lyman," 
who some years previously had given him a signet 
ring of somewhat unusual design. After Hodgson's 
death the donor had made enquiries of his executors 
in regard to the ring, but it could not be found amongst 
his effects. The gift of the ring was otherwise un- 
known to anyone except the donor and the recipient. 
At this sitting the Hodgson control described the 
ring accurately and gave the date when he received it 
(quite unknown to the medium). The sitter told 
the control that the ring could not be found. At a 
subsequent sitting the control gave the following 
message by the hand of Mrs. Piper. [Hodgson died 
of heart failure when playing tennis at the Club.] 

" I had the ring on my finger when I started 

for the club. I recall putting it in my waistcoat 

pocket, I did so because it hurt my finger when 

playing." 

The ring was actually found later in the very same 

waistcoat. (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXIII., pp. 13-16). 

Another incident also of the " gooseberry jam " 

description, but highly evidential, was as follows : — 

The sitter was Mrs. W. James, on June 12th, 1906. 

The sitter asked : — 

" Do you remember what happened in our 
library one night when you were arguing with 
Margie (Mrs. James' sister) ? " At once the 
medium's fist was shaken threateningly and 
these words came. 

" Yes, I did this in her face. I could not 
help it. She was so impossible to move. It 
was wrong of me, but I couldn't help it." 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 117 

The incident was absolutely correct. Hodgson 
had become exasperated with the lady in an argu- 
ment, and had at length shaken his fist at her. 

The incident could not have been known to Mrs. 
Piper. Furthermore, it is valuable evidentially, 
because the answer was so completely unusual. 
It is certainly a very uncommon incident for a gentle- 
man to shake his fist in a lady's face, at least in the 
class of society to which the persons in question 
belonged. A medium guessing at a reply would 
have thought of something less improbable (loc. 
ctt. y p. 109). 

Another incident is short enough to be quoted. 
It occurred on February 7th, 1906, a Miss Pope 
being the sitter (loc. cit., p. 111). 

Hodgson : Do you remember a story I told 
you about my old friend, Sidgw T ick ? Don't 
you remember how I imitated him ? 
Miss P. : What about Sidgwick ? 
H. : I imitated him. 
Miss P. : What did you do ? 
H. : I said s-s-s-should-be i-n th-e ter-i-c-k. 
Miss P. : I remember perfectly, that's fine. 
H. : No one living could know this but 
yourself and Mary Bergman. 

(It was most interesting to see the hand write 
these words, to imitate stuttering, and then for 
the first time it flashed over me what he had some 
time ago told Mary Bergman and me about 
Sidgwick, imitating at the same time Sidgwick's 
stammer. " H-Hodgson, if you b-b-believe in it, 
you'll b-be said to be in the t-trick." I cannot 
quote the exact words, but this is nearly right. 



118 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

Sidgwick referred to Hodgson's belief that 
he was actually communicating, through Mrs. 
Piper, with spirits. He meant that people 
not only would not believe what Hodgson gave 
as evidence, but would think he was in collu- 
sion with Mrs. Piper.— T.P.) 
Another spoonful of " gooseberry jam," but good 
evidence, being an incident quite unknown to the 
medium. 

I may also quote a portion of what is known as the 
" Isaac Thompson " case {vide Proc. S.P.R., Vol. 
XXIII, pp. 162-198). The quotation is but an 
abstract of one episode and must be understood as 
such, the whole case is highly evidential but, as will 
be appreciated, far too long for quotation. 

Mr. Isaac Thompson, F.L.S., was head of a large 
firm of wholesale druggists at Liverpool, he died 
on November 6th, 1903. His son, Edwin Thompson, 
had occasion to visit America on business in December, 
1905. He took with him an introduction to Dr. 
Hodgson. The latter arranged for him to sit with 
Mrs. Piper on December 11th, 1905, introducing 
him as a stranger. It will be obvious that Mrs. 
Piper could have no normal knowledge of the family 
of a man paying a short business visit to America 
for the first time. Nor had Dr. Hodgson any know- 
ledge of Mr. Edwin Thompson's family or affairs. 
The sitting held on the above date was evidentially 
a failure. No further sitting was attended by 
Edwin Thompson, as he had to sail for England 
immediately. 

At the next sitting held by Dr. Hodgson, two days 
later, the deceased Isaac Thompson purported to 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 1 19 

communicate and gave some authentic details as 
described below. The value of the evidence is 
greatly increased by the fact that Edwin Thompson 
was not present, since the information could not have 
been acquired by telepathy from the sitters. The 
communicator gave a number of facts about his 
life. Thus he stated, in Mrs. Piper's script, that 
his business was in Drugs at Liverpool. That 
he had one son and three daughters, one named 
Agnes. That his wife wore spectacles, and other 
details. When the record of the sittings was sent 
to England all these statements were found to be 
correct. In fact, there was nothing in the record 
which was wrong. 

Possibly a reader new to the subject may think 
that there is " too much Piper " in the S.P.R. records, 
that a case which rests so largely on the results ob- 
tained with one medium must be a bad one. 

It may be answered, Firstly, that the number of 
genuine and developed trance mediums is obviously 
small. Secondly, that among such it is very diffi- 
cult to find any who, if professional, are prepared 
to devote their gifts to the service of psychical 
research for a remuneration smaller than they would 
obtain as " general practitioners," or if non- 
professional can give the time needed. Thirdly, that 
it is even more difficult to obtain competent and skilled 
observers to undertake the lengthy and tedious 
business of continuously supervising the sittings of a 
medium. 

Psychical research will not readily find another 
Hodgson who is prepared to devote the best years 
of his life to such an exacting and thankless task. 



120 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

As above explained, continuous supervision by one 
competent observer renders the records far more 
valuable than those of discontinuous observations 
by different, though equally skilled investigators. 

It should, however, be mentioned, that Dr. 
Hyslop conducted, after Hodgson's death, a con- 
nected series of experiments with a medium (non- 
professional) known as Mrs. " Chenoweth," through 
whom some very evidential records have been 
obtained. The " Tausch " case is among these, 
and may be briefly summarized. 

Dr. Hyslop received a letter from a lady in Germany 
unknown to him, who had recently lost her husband, 
asking him to recommend a medium in Germany. 
Dr. Hyslop knew of no suitable person in that 
country, but stated that, if she could visit America, 
he could arrange sittings for her with a thoroughly 
trustworthy psychic. His correspondent could not 
leave home, but she gave the name (different to her 
own) and address of a sister in America, who might 
take her place. 

Dr. Hyslop arranged accordingly, introducing 
the sister as a sitter under an assumed name. 

A number of correct items of information as to 
the deceased Herr Tausch were received (neither 
Dr. Hyslop nor the medium knew anything about 
him). Furthermore — a striking point — Dr. Hyslop 
addressed the communicator in German and received 
numerous replies in that language, although the 
medium knew no German (for a full description 
of the case see Sir W. Barrett On the Threshold of the 
Unseen, Kegan Paul, 1917, pp. 225-8). 

A recent example (1914-15) of Automatic writing, 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 121 

providing strong evidence of the identity of the 
communicators, was received by the hand of Mrs. 
Willett, and is described in Mr. Gerald Balfour's 
paper " The Ear of Dionysius " (Proc. S.P.R., 
Vol. XXIX., pp. 197-243). The communication 
is in the nature of a classical conundrum received 
in four different scripts at various dates, the key 
to which is only given in the last script. The 
various classical allusions could not have been within 
the knowledge of Mrs. Willett who, as Mr. Balfour 
tells us, has no more classical knowledge than the 
ordinary educated Englishwoman. The ostensible 
communicators were the late Professors Verrall and 
Henry Butcher, and the various allusions are specially 
characteristic of these two scholars. For example, 
we have a clear reference to the latter's work on 
Aristotle's Poetics. It is unfortunately impossible 
to abridge this case to a length which renders quota- 
tion possible. 

The reader is, therefore, recommended to study 
Mr. Balfour's above-quoted paper. Apart from the 
evidential value of the case, it will be found most 
interesting reading, owing to the extraordinary in- 
genuity of the puzzle and the dramatic way in which 
the various allusions and quotations all fit together 
when the key piece is found. In this as in other, 
cases, it seems impossible to believe that the sublim- 
inal of the Automatist can have fabricated so elaborate 
and consistent a problem, involving subjects far 
beyond her knowledge. We must, therefore, 
find it difficult to resist the conclusion that these 
scripts give definite evidence of design and control 
by extra-terrene intelligences. 

K 



122 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

So far the type of communication considered may 
be described as direct. It is verified or disproved 
by reference to the knowledge of living persons. 
Were it not for the existence of the powers of 
telepathy (including clairvoyance), such verified cases 
would be definite evidence that the messages had 
been originated by some extra-terrene intelligences. 
Telepathy, however, destroys this certainty. We 
know that under certain (imperfectly understood) 
conditions, mind can communicate with mind other- 
wise than through the normal channels of the senses, 
hence that a few psychically developed persons 
have, at times, the power, to use a popular phrase, 
of reading other persons thoughts. It is, therefore, 
often possible to explain the extra-normal know- 
ledge displayed in these communications, as being due 
to the abnormal powers which the medium possesses. 
Thus, in the above-quoted case of Mrs. James' sitting 
on June 12th, 1906, it might, not unreasonably, 
be assumed that a fairly definite picture of what had 
occurred was in her mind when she asked the ques- 
tion quoted. If, therefore, the medium possessed 
the above power, she could, so to speak, extract 
from the sitter's mind the material from which the 
highly circumstantial answers were framed. 

Such an explanation is, of course, hypothetical, 
but in view of what we know, or suspect, of these 
abnormal powers we must hesitate definitely to accept 
as a real message from the departed, any com- 
munication which might reasonably be attributed to 
Telepathy inter vivos. 

Among the earlier communications a portion 
(though by no means all) could be thus explained. 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 123 

It is, therefore, clear that the evidential value for 
any communication is increased if the possibility 
of this influence can be minimised. 

This might seem at first sight to be almost impos- 
sible. If a disembodied communicator is to send 
a message which can be verified, the substance 
of that message must obviously be known to some 
living person. If known, then it may have passed, 
from the mind of the person who knew it, to the 
medium, by Telepathy. The reader will, therefore, 
appreciate that the problem of finding a mode of 
communication from the dead to the living, which 
shall exclude the possible influence of Telepathy, is 
by no means simple. 

Assume that a person who has passed over, and 
who, in this life, had been fully acquainted with this 
very difficulty, is desirous of communicating in such 
a manner that his communications could not reason- 
ably be attributed to Telepathy, how can he set 
about it ? The simplest way would be to impress 
two or more mediums or automatists at various 
times with various disconnected portions of his 
message, portions which, in themselves, were 
meaningless, but which acquired a clear meaning 
when put together. He would thus eliminate 
Telepathy and also reduce the ever present tendency 
of every automatist, subconsciously, to distort or 
sophisticate the impressions which he or she receives. 
To take an analogy, suppose a person desirous of 
transmitting a message, his only means of trans- 
mission being by several untrustworthy inter- 
mediaries who were likely to mutilate and embroider 
any message which they could understand. His safest 



124 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

and simplest method would be to entrust to each 
of them a number of isolated words or phrases, 
which were meaningless in themselves, so that it 
would only be, when all these disjointed portions 
were collected and put together, that the message 
would be intelligible. 

This is precisely what we find in the recent evi- 
dence. Between 1900 and 1905 Prof. Sidgwick, 
Mr. Myers and Dr. Hodgson passed over. All, 
especially the last two, were intimately acquainted 
with the " incredible falsifications " to which these 
communications were open. There appeared, about 
this time, a series of systematic attempts to transmit 
messages on the above-mentioned lines. Thus, 
we find an automatist receiving words or phrases, 
in themselves unintelligible, until they are com- 
pared with the script of other automatists obtained 
independently, at different times and often, as in the 
case of Mrs. Holland's Indian scripts, at far distant 
places. When thus compared the various fragments 
are found to fit together like the pieces of a jig-saw 
puzzle and a connected message is the result. 

To these messages the names of " cross corres- 
pondences " and " concordant automatisms " have 
been given. 

The analogy given above may convey the impres- 
sion that the scripts constituting cross correspondences 
are necessarily dissociated in their matter from the 
automatists supra-liminal or sub-liminal storage of 
ideas. In some cases, specially in the case of trance 
communications this may be so, but, in the majority 
of scripts the communicator appears to be exercising 
a process of selection from the storage of ideas of 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 125 

the automatists. From this storehouse he selects 
the ideas he needs, often in the form of literary 
quotations, and causes the automatist to write these 
(vide Miss Johnson's remarks, Proc. S.P.R., Vol. 
XXIV., pp. 254-263, and Vol. XXV., pp. 282-290). 

It does not seem unreasonable that a communi- 
cator might find it easier thus to use already existing 
ideas and to mould them to his own ends, rather 
than to impress he sensitive with a new idea entirely 
disconnected with anything in his or her own storage. 

The Gurney-Willett control gives a circum- 
stantial reason for this. The attempt had been 
made to transmit the word " Dorr," The nearest 
which could be achieved by the above methods were 
certain quotations containing the word " door " 
which were not understood by the investigators. 

Finally the required word was transmitted by 
what Gurney describes as the telergic method. 
The control goes on to say : (vide Proc. S.P.R., 
Vol. XXV., p. 219). 

" The word had to be given that way after 
efforts had been made to convey it telepathically 
(i.e., by the use of the automatisms own storage of 
ideas) without success. It (the telergic method) 
was a great strain on both sides. We don't 
want to move any atoms in the brain directly." 

Mrs. Willett's description of the sensations which 
preceded and followed the communication, show 
that she was subjected to considerable mental stress 
(quite different to her usual experience when writing 
automatically) (Loc cit. y p. 128). 

It will be conceded that if the cross-correspond- 
ences are of such quantity and quality as to be 



126 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

inexplicable on any hypothesis other than that they 
are originated and shaped by disembodied intelli- 
gences, the fact that these intelligences use terrene 
mental material does not invalidate the evidence. 
In effect they may have to use human " thought 
stuff " just as they have to use human hands for 
the process of writing. 

The cross correspondences which are, apparently, 
of undeniable evidential value are now numerous. 

It is unfortunately, impossible, adequately to sum- 
marize any of them. It is only by a consideration 
of the complete analysis of the evidence that any 
reasoned opinion can be reached. The cross 
correspondences are certainly complex, but this 
complexity is one of their most evidential features 
and is, of course, destroyed if an attempt is made 
to compress them within limits suitable for quotation. 

An outline of one known as " Hope, Star and 
Browning " (these being the chief ideas of which it 
was composed) may, however, be given to show the 
kind of thing that a cross correspondence is. Four 
automatists were involved. Mrs. Piper, who wrote 
in trance as previously described, Mrs. Holland, 
Mrs. Verrall and Miss Verrall (Mrs. Salter) who 
write under normal conditions and not in trance 
(for detailed description and analysis see Proc. 
S.P.R., Vols. XXII. and XXVII.). 

The matter started with a request to the Myers — 
Piper control, at the end of December, 1906, that 
he would impress three different automatists with 
interconnected messages. 

The request was given at Mrs. Piper's sittings in 
Latin, a language of which the medium had no 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 127 

knowledge. An incidental reason for so doing was 
to test whether the ostensible communicator was 
capable of understanding a language which the 
medium did not know. It was, furthermore, suggested 
by Mr. Piddington to Myers P that he should en- 
deavour to cause the automatists to add to their 
script an identifying geometrical symbol, a triangle 
within a circle. The control acknowledged the 
message and after an interval said that he had im- 
pressed the ideas " Hope, Star and Browning " 
on the scripts of the Automatists. 

Soon after this, Mrs. Verrall's script began to give 
the specified ideas in a manner somewhat complex, 
but yet not doubtful. While the desired symbol 
was accurately transmitted. Thus in her script 
of January 28th, 1907 (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXVII., 
pp. 36-39), a fortnight after the suggestion had been 
made, we get all the three ideas definitely transmitted. 
The script starts with the word " aster " (a star). 
Then several passages appear introducing the idea 
of " hope," some contained in quotations from 
Browning's poems and then a definite reference to 
one of these poems by the words " Abt Vogler" 
and finally an unmistakable drawing of a triangle 
within a circle. Miss Verrall (Mrs. Salter), in a 
script of February 7th, 1907 (written in ignorance of 
Mrs. Verrall's scripts and also of the fact that any 
experiments were being attempted), gives a clear 
drawing of a Star, also the word itself in the form 
of an anagram, together with more Browning quota- 
tions and other passages containing the idea of hope 
(loc. cit.y pp. 40-41). 

Mrs. Holland's scripts written in India also con- 



128 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

tain unmistakable references to the three ideas of 
the message. The geometrical symbol does not 
emerge in her case but a description of it is given 
(loc. cit.y pp. 42-46). 

The cross correspondences are elaborately, yet 
clearly set forth in the following papers : in the 
Proceedings of the S.P.R., Vol. XXL, Miss Johnson 
On the Automatic Writing of Mrs. Holland ; Vol. 
XXI I., Mr. Piddington A Series of Concordant 
Automatisms. The whole of part 50 of Vol. XXIII. 
which contains supplementary papers by the above 
two authors and also further matter by Mrs. Sidgwick 
and Mrs. Verrall. Vol XXV. which contains 
some general remarks by Mr. Gerald Balfour ; a 
paper Evidence of Classical Scholarship and of Cross 
Correspondence , by Sir O. Lodge ; notes on Mrs. 
Willett's scripts and on a special cross correspondence 
by Mrs. Verrall; and a third report on Mrs. Holland's 
script by Miss Johnson. Vol. XXVI. contains 
further contributions to the subject by Mrs. Verrall 
and Mrs. Sidgwick together with a contribution 
on the negative side from Dr. Joseph Maxwell. 
Vol. XXVII. contains Miss Johnson's comprehensive 
study, A Reconstruction of some Concordant Auto- 
matisms, and papers by Mr. Gerald Balfour on the 
Willett scripts and Miss Verrall (Mrs. Salter) ; also 
some notes and discussions on Mr. Balfour's paper 
by the Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Mr. Carrington and Dr. 
Tuckett. Vol. XXIX. contains a short but most 
instructive paper by Mrs. Sidgwick On the Develop- 
ment of Different types of evidence for survival. 

If it is permissible to select where all is of value 
and merit, the inquirer might be recommended to 
commence with a perusal of Mrs. Sidgwick's paper 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 129 

in Vol. XXIX. which will give a clear idea of the 
general aspect of the problem. Next to read Miss 
Johnson's paper in Vol. XXVII. which gives a synop- 
sis of the chief cross correspondences up to the date 
of its compilation, and to follow with Mr. Pidding- 
ton's contributions. To anyone possessed of ample 
time, a first-class library, and a wide knowledge of 
ancient and modern literature, cross-correspondence 
hunting must indeed be a fascinating pursuit. 

The evidential value of the cross correspondences 
must, primarily, stand or fall on the correctness of 
the interpretations of the various literary allusions 
which the commentators of the S.P.R. have given. 
If we found that any critics had produced equally, 
or almost equally, plausible interpretations which 
changed sense into nonsense, our confidence in the 
cross correspondences as revealing a definite extra- 
terrene origin would be rudely shaken. We do not 
however, find this. During the sufficiently long 
period that these records have been before the public, 
we do not find that, the still not inconsiderable 
number of men of science who reject any super- 
normal explanation, have ever endeavoured to de- 
molish the evidence in the only way in which it can 
be demolished, namely, by showing that the above 
interpretations are wrong, or at least doubtful. This 
is a case where generalities will not serve the opposi- 
tion. The structure of the evidence must be attacked 
in detail by pulling out the very stones of which it is 
constructed. No flourishes of trumpets will bring 
down these walls of Jericho. Until, therefore, those 
who deny the extra-normal origin of these communi- 
cations are able to produce a case for the negative 
as thorough and as careful as that which has been 



130 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

presented for the positive, the practical man must 
incline towards the positive conclusion. 

Let us briefly restate the position in regard to the 
evidence furnished by the cross correspondences. 
We have a number of isolated and intrinsically un- 
intelligible fragments, received through divers 
independent channels, in different places at different 
times. When the fragments are collected they are 
found to form a consistent and intelligible whole. 
How are we to explain this ? We must have some 
provisional hypothesis to offer, for it has occurrred 
so often that we cannot treat it as a mere sport, or 
attribute the concordances to chance coincidence. 

Let us first consider the hypothesis that the 
correspondence between the scripts of the various 
automatists can be accounted for by purely normal 
means. 

Granting, in view of what has just been said, that the 
published interpretations of the scripts are accurate, 
the only normal means are obviously collusion and 
chance-coincidence. The former, is surely unthink- 
able, in view of the repute of the automatists con- 
cerned. It may be admitted at once that it cannot 
be definitely disproved. If the critic is of opinion 
that a number of men and women, with no ulterior 
motives to serve, many of them of no little position 
in the literary and scientific world, have united in a 
conspiracy to deceive, no argument can refute him. 
Post-marks, dates, and signed statements will not 
move him, since the moral obliquity which would 
thus sport with the deepest feelings of humanity, 
would not boggle at such minor sins as the fabrica- 
tion of post-marks, or the forgery of documents. 

In regard to chance coincidence, this hypothesis 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 131 

is not capable of refutation by mere arithmetic, as in 
the case of simple Telepathic experiments, where 
the mathematical probability of chance can be 
definitely evaluated. Anyone, however, who will 
peruse the records above cited cannot deny that 
the coincidences in the cross correspondences are 
enormously greater than can be attributed to chance. 

It is clear, therefore, that there is no purely normal 
hypothesis that will account for these corre- 
spondences. 

We have next to consider the telepathic hypo- 
thesis. This is a far more complex subject for the 
reasons that the limitations of telepathy are by no 
means definitely understood. 

Let us see what this hypothesis involves. It 
implies the power of one automatist as agent, un- 
consciously and without volition, to start a train of 
thought in other automatists which shall induce 
them to write, not what happened to be in the mind 
of the agent at the time, but passages or words having 
a connection with the pseudo-agent's impressions 
but by no means a replica thereof. If one auto- 
matist wrote a word or sentence and that word or 
sentence was reproduced at, or about, the same time 
in the script of another automatist, Telepathy is a 
possible explanation. This, as has been already 
said, is by no means the case in the cross corre- 
spondences. It is going beyond the powers of 
Telepathy, as far as observation and experiment 
have yet defined them, to say that a telepathic 
impulse may cause an affect on one or more 
percipients which emerges, not as a replica of the 
ideas transmitted, but as other ideas parallel and 
complimentary to the agent's idea. 



132 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

It would be idle to deny that there is a real diffi- 
culty in deciding how far the Telepathic hypothesis 
can be applied. Mr. Constable's theory of Tele- 
pathy {vide Cap 2 above), as action between the 
intuitive selves of agent and percipient, in which the 
clothing or externalization of the affect is the work 
of the percipient alone, accommodates a transmission 
in which the percept is parallel but not coincident 
with the agent's ideas. For example, one auto- 
matisms script contains a passage from a certain 
poet dealing, say, with the virtues of patience. The 
effect received by some other automatist in rapport 
with the agent might cause the emergence in his 
script of some parallel passage dealing with the 
same subject in some other poetical or prose work. 

This becomes more difficult to imagine, when as 
in the case of most of the cross correspondences, more 
than two automatists are concerned. We have no 
experimental proof whatever of the possibility of a 
network of agent-percipients. All observations 
go to show that telepathy is most certainly direc- 
tional. The telepathic impulse is not, so to speak, 
radiated in all directions to be picked up by anyone, 
at any point of the compass. 

This difficulty is admittedly based on purely 
theoretical grounds but it should not for that reason 
be overlooked. Each case must, I think, be treated 
on its merits. As a general rule the possibility 
of the telepathic explanation will vary inversely with 
the complexity of the cross correspondence. 

It is, perhaps, necessary to state that even if the 
evidence for the extra-terrene origin of these com- 
munications is considered sufficient, it does not 
logically follow that because they are extra-terrene 



COMMUNICATION— EVIDENCE 133 

they are necessarily authentic. They may be due 
to some disembodied intelligence other than the 
ostensible communicators. If we hypothecate that 
" spirits " have powers of telepathy and clairvoyance 
similar to, but far more developed than those of 
earthly psychics, it is theoretically possible that some 
" lying spirits " might be able thus to extract from 
the storage of memory of the departed, enough 
matter to enable them to simulate the ostensible 
communicators with sufficient accuracy to deceive 
the sitters. Such a hypothesis cannot be disproved 
but, I think, that to most people who accept the 
supernormal origin of these communications, it 
will be far more difficult of acceptance than the more 
simple one that the communications are authentic 
in their origin. 

I think enough has been said to justify the state- 
ment that the evidence for communication with the 
disembodied is very strong. The practical man is 
confronted with a large number of consistent and 
reliable observations of a phenomenon for which 
no reasonable explanation can yet be found, except 
that the disembodied do originate communications 
to us embodied. This hypothesis has, therefore, 
to be accepted provisionally. Alternately, he may 
say, that although the present evidence is good he 
requires more of it before he can consider proof as 
complete. No impartial investigator can quarrel 
with this conclusion. The quarrel is with those 
who Prof. James called M Bosh philosophers. M Those 
who will accept nothing that smacks of the super- 
natural, however strong may be the proof, who 
" will not be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead." 



CHAPTER VII 

CONCLUSION 

Three subjects which are generally considered to 
fall within the circle of psychic phenomena have 
been omitted for want of space. 

The phenomenon of Dowsing, the faculty which 
some persons possess of locating water and minerals, 
apparently by some affect causing unconscious 
muscular action, is definitely established as a fact. 

It is generally agreed that the rod or twig used by 
the dowser is nothing more than a rough and ready 
apparatus for indicating these movements. Sir 
W. Barrett {vide Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XIII., pp. 1-281 
and Vol. XV., pp. 130-315) has devoted considerable 
attention to this subject. The cause of the action 
is still obscure. 

Psychometry is a term used, not very appro- 
priately, for the power, possessed by some psychics 
of extracting information referring to a person, 
living or dead, when they are holding an article 
belonging to that person 

In Mrs. Piper's trance mediumship, communica- 
tion appeared to be faciliated when some object 
belonging to the communicator was held by the 
medium. There are also cases where an Automatist 
has been given an article, of which the previous 
ownership and history were completely unknown to 
her, and correct information on matter connected 



CONCLUSION 135 

with that article has been given (cf. Mrs. Verrall's 
paper Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XX.). 

Here, as in the case of Dowsing, we seem to find 
some power in inanimate matter to cause affects 
on human personalities. The theory that articles 
retain, in some measure the impress of previous 
owners does not seem to fit the facts such as they are. 
(cf. Constable, loc. cit. y pp. 298-300). 

The evidence for Haunttngs is respectable in age 
and quantity. In quality it is less satisfactory. 
If we accept hauntings of houses and places, as a 
fact, we have to assume that certain disembodied 
intelligences are, so to speak, chained to places 
which they inhabited when last on earth and that 
when, and only when, sensitives come within the 
radius of the chain they receive affects from the 
disembodied intelligence which cause the emergence 
of anything from a vague noise to a full-fledged 
ghost. The mere fact that a " spirit " should thus 
communicate is not inconsistent with the evidence 
given in the previous chapter. The difficulty 
lies in the fact that a disembodied intelligence who 
is, we might say, by definition, not limited by physical 
dimensions, should be able to exercise this power 
only within an area of a few square yards. 

The whole matter is so obscure, that I do not think 
much apology is needed for omitting its detailed 
consideration from a book which attempts to be 
practical. 

A recent example of a haunting which, by reason 
of the considerable experience of the narrator in 
psychic research is worthy of attention, is given by 
Miss Miles (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXVII., pp. 293-301). 



136 PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

In conclusion, I hope that the reader, who has 
followed me thus far, will have appreciated that 
the chief point which I have been endeavouring to 
drive home is that no reasoned opinion on psychic 
phenomena is possible until the evidence for these 
phenomena has been first considered. A truism, 
no doubt, but we find on all sides people who are 
prepared to pronounce on these weighty matters with 
no uncertain voice, but yet have never examined 
the evidence and are often, indeed, ignorant of its 
existence. 

The ordinary layman does not pronounce opinions 
on facts in physics, chemistry, or astronomy, because 
he has not studied these subjects. In regard to 
psychic phenomena, however, he is ready with his 
opinion. The same thing was observable in the 
latter half of the nineteenth century when many, 
otherwise intelligent people, condemned " Darwin 
and his Gospel of Dirt," who had never read even 
the Origin of Species. 

The man who says " I have perused the evidence 
but consider it inadequate for the following reasons 

. . ." is one with whom we can argue with mutual 
profit. 

The man who says " These phenomena are 
contrary to the laws of nature, therefore, any evi- 
dence for them is unworthy of consideration " is 
beyond argument. He is as irrational as the 
ecclesiastics who opposed the Mosaic cosmology 
to the doctrine of Evolution. If this book may lead 
some readers to pass from the latter to the former 
class it will not have been written in vain. 



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